The Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented application programming interfaces in an effort to improve the delivery of services to former military personnel, Nextgov reported Thursday. APIs are protocols designed to handle communications and shared functionalities between applications.

Surafeal Asgedom, VA’s chief modernization officer, said at a Dell event in Washington, D.C. that APIs will serve as the “gateway to modernization efforts” and act as “future enablers” for technological advancement.

“Today, our veterans expect a more current care service,” he noted. “They want to be able to get the same kind of service they get in the commercial world.”

According to Asgedom, the department is rolling out the Facilities API, Benefits API and Verification API. The first API will use Amazon’s Alexa product to provide facility-related information and appointment scheduling services, while the second will involve Apple technologies and focus on the development of tools for veteran healthcare.

The third API will enable veterans to verify their status through various platforms.

Emily Murphy, administrator of the General Services Administration and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, has said that the agency’s plan to consolidate multiple-award schedules is “definitely foundational” to future reforms the agency intends to enact. In an interview with Federal Times published Thursday, Murphy noted that the move will reduce the amount of special item numbers and help the agency better catalog data and process analytics. 

“All sorts of goodness is going to come from this consolidation, as well as really giving us a chance to leverage our workforce in a very different way, use technology better, so we can implement things like robotic process automation,” she said. The consolidation will improve agencies’ buying capacity and help small and emerging businesses better integrate into GSA’s schedules, she added.

Alan Thomas, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, said the agency’s efforts to establish an e-commerce platform for purchases below $10,000 will remove stringent regulatory barriers and help small buisinesses gain opportunities with the government.

“We are involving the workforce in the change; and in many cases, relying on them to help us drive that change,” he noted.

Barbara Barrett, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Air Force secretary, said that she would prioritize the establishment of a Space Force if confirmed for the post, The Hill reported Thursday. Barrett told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at her confirmation hearing that a Space Force is “overdue” and that she looks forward to participating in negotiations to create an agency focused on furthering the nation’s capability in space.

“American national power depends upon space, and our potential adversaries know it,” she said. “We must be prepared to defend critical space assets, increase the resilience of our space enterprise and be prepared to fight and win should deterrence fail.”

Barrett’s prior roles include chairwoman of The Aerospace Corp. and U.S. ambassador to Finland. She was nominated to replace 2019 Wash100 Award recipient Heather Wilson as Air Force secretary in May.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Transportation Security Administration create a system to share with mass transit operators the results of TSA’s tests on technology platforms designed to secure surface transportation operations.

GAO said Thursday it found that although TSA conducts an assessment of commercially available security products, the agency does not have a mechanism for routing and comprensive data sharing.

According to the office, TSA and the science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security “are the primary federal entities responsible for researching, developing and testing technologies designed to address threats to these systems.”

DHS S&T has an ongoing mass transit security technology research-and-development effort, dubbed the Surface Transportation Explosive Threat Detection program.

GAO determined that the directorate did not fully adhere to DHS guidance that calls for the development of results-based milestones to monitor progress in programs such as STETD.

The office based its report on interviews with S&T, TSA and industry representatives, observation on  technologies; documentation reviews and budget analysis over the past six fiscal years.

The U.S. Strategic Command and California Polytechnic State University have agreed to exchange situational awareness data in the space domain.

Stratcom said Thursday it expanded the organization’s SSA program to the academic sector by partnering with Cal Poly in the data-sharing initiative.

“Academic partnerships such as these provide a foundation for research in space,” said Rear Adm. Richard Correll, director of plans and policy at Stratcom.

“Improving SSA, through technical advancements and increased sharing, grows our collective ability to avoid collisions by rapidly detecting, warning, characterizing and attributing natural or man-made phenomena affecting space systems and the space environment,” Correll added.

More than 80 satellite companies and 20 countries signed data-sharing agreements with Stratcom in connection with the program. The Air Force Space Command collects and shares information necessary to plan satellite maneuvers, address on-orbit anomalies, report electromagnetic interference, decommission satellites and conduct launch activities.

Cal Poly has been providing Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with data in efforts to help increase the safety of space flight for cubesats.