The Federal Communications Commission unveiled an optional authorization process for small commercial satellite systems with certain characteristics. Operators of satellites that have a wet mass of not more than 396.8 pounds and are built to remain in orbit for a short time period will be eligible to skip the licesing process, FCC said Thursday.

The optional process, which falls under Part 25 of agency regulations, will also apply to smallsats designed to have low space debris and spectrum interference risks. FCC also introduced an application fee category for companies that want to obtain a license or enter the smallsat market in the U.S.

The commission said such systems work to support research, communications, remote sensing and scientific missions.

The Government Accountability Office released a report stating that the Defense Intelligence Agency failed to properly oversee the Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence program aiming to diversify the pool of applicants for IC positions.

GAO assessed DIA’s oversight of CAE from 2011 to 2019 and found that the agency failed to create results-oriented program goals and provided insufficient data for evaluating the program’s success. In addition, DIA wasn’t able to establish monitoring procedures for IC elements’ participation in events supporting the program including college recruitment activities.

The watchdog noted that DIA’s failure in program management will result in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence being unable to properly determine the program’s success as the organization assumes CAE oversight in fiscal 2020. CAE issued 46 grants totaling $69M to 29 colleges from 2005 to 2018 and has been under DIA’s management since 2011.

Gil Alterovitz, director of artificial intelligence at the Department of Veterans Affairs, discussed his plans to apply AI to VA’s problem solving efforts, Nextgov reported Thursday. He told Nextgov about his ongoing efforts and long-term goals to help veterans and support veteran care via AI and VA’s plethora of data. 

“We really want to be the go-to place for veterans through AI research and development—so instead of reacting, we can really anticipate their needs,” Alterovitz said.

The AI director said the technology can help researchers quickly detect cases of acute kidney injury, an illness that doctors usually notice when chances of treatment have reduced. A VA-supported research team used machine learning with veteran patient data to forecast on kidney failure, the report noted.

“When you think about how we are preparing ourselves, what we want to do is set a vision for the future and leverage all the strengths that we have,” stated Alterovitz, a former Harvard professor.

The Senate has confirmed Michael Kratsios, previously the deputy U.S. chief technology officer and deputy assistant to the president, as the new federal CTO, The Hill reported Thursday.

Kratsios, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, was confirmed by voice vote and is now the fourth person to hold the position. He has been leading the Office of Science and Technology Policy on an acting basis since 2017 and spent almost a decade in the financial services industry.

Last month, Kratsios noted during his confirmation hearing that he hopes to focus on emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 5G technology. President Trump nominated Kratsios for the CTO role in March.

The Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency introduced an online tool to inform whistleblowers about their rights and process for reporting abuse, waste and fraud at agencies, Federal News Network reported Thursday. 

The new page on the Oversight website is in the “beta” phase and includes information on the inspector general hotline, the Government Accountability Office’s FraudNet portal and the Office of Special Counsel’s disclosure unit. Horowitz said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) proposed funding for the development of the whistleblower landing page in the spending omnibus for fiscal year 2019.

“What we tried to do over the past year or so was think about how we could deliver more information to insiders, to whistleblowers, to come forward [and] report to the IG community on waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct, so that we can help make government more effective and efficient and root out wrongdoing,” Michael Horowitz, chairman of CIGIE and inspector general of the Department of Justice.