The General Services Administration introduced an interactive hub designed to serve as a cloud resource for federal agencies and connect government buyers to cloud service providers. The Cloud Information Center on the Acquisition Gateway allows government users to download templates, review acquisition guidance, access GSA’s best practices and market research as a service tool and work with other decision-makers, GSA said Thursday.

“We’re developing the Cloud Information Center as a one-stop-shop for cloud resources so agencies can easily access the information they need to transition to the cloud,” said Bill Zielinski, acting assistant commissioner of information technology category at GSA.

GSA formed CIC to align cloud offerings with the Office of Management and Budget’s Cloud Smart Strategy, the Report to the President on IT Modernization and the President’s Management Agenda.

The U.S. Air Force plans to implement a new promotion system to enable space, nuclear missiles and cybersecurity personnel to take on higher positions across the service, Space News reported Thursday. 

The promotion system will designate officers in the categories of air operations and special warfare, nuclear and missile operations, space operations, information warfare, combat support and force modernization. To date, only Air Force lawyers, chaplains and medical professional can compete for promotions within their categories. 

Air Force Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Heather Wilson said the service is changing its promotion guidelines for mid-grade officers in an effort to bring more talent to areas of expertise with growing demands. Wilson said the service already spent 18 months reviewing the proposed system and plans to announce a final decision in October.

“This is a really big change,” she said. “We’re going to take it out to the force, get a lot of input, post on it, blog on it, comment on it.” 

Wilson is expected to leave Air Force leadership on May 31 to serve as president of the University of Texas El Paso. 

Bob Kolasky, co-chair of the Information Communications Technology Supply Chain Task Force, said at a Chamber of Commerce conference that the group’s operations will develop regulations to procure foreign telecommunications products, FCW reported Thursday. Kolasky, also the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Risk Management Center, said the task force is working to identify vital functions nationwide that would shut down in the event of an attack.

The group’s efforts will serve as a foundation for the Department of Commerce’s development of policies involving the sale of foreign-made telecom equipment, he noted. Recently, the Trump administration authorized the Commerce secretary to ban ICT-related transactions involving products “designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by or controlled by or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary.”

Suzette Kent, federal chief information officer and 2019 Wash100 winner, said at a Department of Labor meeting that the Office of Management and Budget is “working aggressively” to develop automated technology policies, Nextgov reported Thursday.

Kent told reporters at the closed-door meeting in Washington, D.C. that automated technology policy requires a lot of planning with various agencies which have different missions and controls. She added that OMB is working to identify regulations can be implemented on a general level and which ones can be left to individual agencies. The intelligence community and Department of Defense have their own policies for regulating automated technology.

“I am incredibly excited about artificial intelligence, that whole spectrum and what we can do to harness the federal data,” she said.

The White House sent a bill to Congress to authorize the transition of the Office of Personnel Management to the General Services Administration, Government Executive reported Thursday.

Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) saying the proposal seeks to move OPM’s functions and resources to GSA, including information technology, human resources, health and insurance services.

“GSA will create a new Personnel Service to house the human resources and employee lifecycle management shared service offerings,” he wrote in the letter obtained by the publication.

According to the legislative proposal attached to the letter, the proposed Administrative Services Merger Act of 2019 would establish the office of federal workforce policy. The director of this office would be a non-Senate confirmed presidential appointee with the rulemaking authority.

The head of OPM as part of GSA would continue to be a presidential appointee subject to the confirmation process of the Senate. Margaret Weichert, acting director of OPM, announced Tuesday the White House’s plan to advance the OPM reorganization.

The House Appropriations Committee released the draft funding bill for NASA and the departments of Commerce and Justice for fiscal year 2020, which would support the initiatives to combat crimes, create jobs, improve U.S. infrastructure and to fight climate change. The Commerce, Justice and Science funding bill issued Thursday would provide $73.9 billion to the agencies, nearly $10 billion higher than the FY19 budget.  

“This year’s CJS funding bill rejects the inadequate and damaging proposals in the Trump Administration’s budget requests, and instead provides needed increases to the key programs in this bill,” said José Serrano, chairman of the subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies. “This bill will create jobs, drive innovation and address pressing public safety issues.”

The bill includes $32 billion for DOJ, which would go to FBI, Bureau of Prisons and Drug Enforcement Administration to prevent violent crimes and drug and human trafficking, among other law enforcement efforts. The Department of Commerce would receive $16.43 billion to support operations of the Census Bureau, the Economic Development Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Meanwhile, NASA is expected to increase its science programs, STEM engagement and missions in space with a $22.32 billion budget from the bill. Serrano’s subcommittee is scheduled to discuss the proposed CJS funding bill on Friday.