Former members of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking are calling on Congress to reconsider the group’s recommendation for a National Secure Data Service, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Katharine Abraham, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said the service would help statistical agencies ensure that information they release would not compromise a person’s privacy. It would also work to “facilitate access to data for evidence building while ensuring privacy and transparency in how those data are used,” according to the commission’s report to Congress.

“There’s an incredible amount of work that still needs to happen in order to advance the recommendation, but if the data service were to exist, it would be able to generate insights about what’s happening in government programs and how we’re influencing the economy and ultimately making our government work better,” noted Nick Hart, CEO of the Data Coalition and the commission’s policy and research director.

Most of the recommendations in the commission’s 2017 report were included in the Evidence Act, which also mandates the establishment of an Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building.

The Space Development Agency’s proposed budget seeks over $11 billion in funds in the next five years to design and field satellite constellations in support of military missions as well as support other space programs, SpaceNews reported Sunday.

The five-year budget plan includes $10.6 billion in funds to support research and development work, prototyping, testing and launch of space “layers” and $582 million in baseline funds to support studies and come up with roadmaps for current space initiatives.

SDA will initially design the National Defense Space Architecture, which will be composed of seven layers and incorporate capabilities across industry and the Department of Defense, before it begins development work on the constellations, according to the report.

SDA’s budget requests for each layer are listed below:

• Transport layer – $6M in 2021 and $3.6B over five years
• Tracking layer – $39M in 2021 and 1.8B over five years
• Custody layer – $18M in 2021 and $232M over five years
• Battle management layer – $10M in 2021 and $56M over five years
• Navigation layer – $10M in 2021 and $56M over five years
• Deterrence layer – $1M in 2021 and $451M over five years
• Support layer – $61M in 2021 and $1.4B over five years

The U.S. and U.K. have agreed to allow access to each other’s digitally stored data and evidence for law enforcement purposes as part of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, FCW reported Friday.

The tentative agreement covers a wide range of crimes and will comply with data protection laws, according to the Department of Justice. The agreement also prohibits both countries from using authorities to target each other’s citizens, and requires the U.S. to seek permission from the U.K. when using data for cases involving the death penalty.

“Only by addressing the problem of timely access to electronic evidence of crime committed in one country that is stored in another, can we hope to keep pace with 21st-century threats,” said U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr in a statement.

U.S. and U.K lawmakers are slated to conclude a review process on the CLOUD Act’s first bilateral agreement ahead of its full implementation in six months.

The U.S. Air Force’s security arm has initiated the service branch’s new justice information system to spread awareness of factors that threaten the USAF community’s safety.

USAF said Thursday it produced the AF Justice Information System that reports progressive criminal data to security forces. The service branch worked with other service branches and used $5.7M to develop the system in under 10 months.

“Deployment of the system will occur in phases and will go live for all Air Force security forces units – including Reserve and National Guard – by October 31,” said Lt. Col. Sandra Thompson, who leads the AFJIS project.

She said experts from Hanscom Air Force Base, Patrick AFB and Joint Base Andrews will subject the system’s global blotter and case management modules to testing.

The new AFJIS replaces the legacy Security Forces Management Information System that USAF has been employing since the 1990s.

“The total force team will continue to develop and improve the system to include additional capabilities that further enhance the capabilities in our defender toolkit,” Thompson added.

The Department of Homeland Security is slated to deploy a cloud-based system that will process millions of biometrics data and support the department’s efforts to modernize its facial recognition and related software, Nextgov reported Thursday.

The Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System is slated to replace the Automated Biometric Identification System, which DHS has deployed since 1994 and houses over 250 million biometrics data.

HART will run on Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud and include a data warehouse as well as a testing environment designed to allow performance analyses without impacting everyday operations. The platform will also work to perform biometrics assessments based on additional features such as a person’s physical marks and voice.

Patrick Nemeth, director of identity operations at DHS’ Office of Biometric Identity Management, told the publication that the two-phase HART effort would enable the department to avoid being “locked in” with a single vendor.

Previously, Northrop Grumman secured a $95 million award to work on the program’s first phase which is slated to conclude in 2021.

NASA is continuing efforts to recover the InSight lander’s heat probe that stopped operating since it began digging the Martian surface in February. The agency said Thursday it is analyzing various ways of maneuvering InSight’s robotic arm to assist the heat probe, which is known as “the mole” and is intended to dig up to 16 feet below Mars’ surface to measure the amount of heat it emanates.

During the operation, the team discovered up to 4 inches of duricrust or thick cemented soil beneath the planet’s surface. The team is working on soil-scraping techniques as part of the probe and plans to make the images captured by the lander available to the public.

“This might increase friction enough to keep it moving forward when mole hammering resumes,” said Sue Smrekar, deputy principal investigator for the InSight mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

JPL manages the InSight program, while the German Aerospace Center built the heat probe as part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrumentation package.

The Federal Trade Commission’s inspector general found that the agency faces security and cost challenges in information technology. FTC Office of the Inspector General identified the agency’s challenges in securing information systems and networks from destruction, data Loss or compromise, Andrew Katsaros, FTC inspector general, wrote in a letter posted Sept. 27.

The agency does not employ a security-embedded enterprise architecture to support risk management activities. OIG gave the agency a rating of level 3, which is below the maturity standard imposed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The inspector general office recommends FTC to maintain performance of information assets while the agency updates systems, reorganizes IT staff, address new security requirements and support missions.

Katsaros also noted FTC’s issue of escalating costs to to hire expert witnesses. The agency’s bureaus of Competition and Consumer Protection are engaging with increasingly complex cases that make it difficult to predict future costs of expert witnesses.

OIG recommends the FTC to consider utilizing an in-house workforce of expert witnesses. The audit report also includes issues that do not pose high-level challenges but still require attention: acquisition planning and contract management, impersonations of the FTC and its employees. OIG conducted the audit in accordance with the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000.