Richard Spencer, the secretary of the U.S. Navy and a 2019 Wash100 awardee, said the service is naming its newest towing, salvage and rescue ship in honor of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe from Michigan.

The Navy said Friday the USNS Saginaw Ojibwe Anishinabek is one of six contracted vessels to be named after either Native Americans or Native American tribes and will be used to support the service branch’s submarine salvage operations.

The service noted that Ojibwe refers to the Chippewa people comprising the Saginaw, Black River and Swan Creek bands of native Americans. 

Gulf Island Shipyards secured a $64.8M contract in 2018 to design and manufacture the new vessel at its shipyard in Houma, Louisiana, through July 2021. 

The rescue ship will feature commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the Military Sealift Command’s T-ATF 166 and T-ARS 50 class ships. 

The Government Accountability Office has evaluated the information security programs of federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget’s performance in supervising these efforts.

GAO said Friday it found that the majority of its study’s 16 sample agencies exhibited weaknesses in most areas of security control.

The accountability office evaluated 16 agencies in eight security aspects required for these programs by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. These aspects are: periodic risk assessment, cost-effective policies and procedures, subordinate plans for security, security training, periodic testing of controls, remedial actions process, incident response and continuity of operations.

Of the sample, 13 agencies showed weak performance in incident response, remedial actions and security training.

Inspector generals also discovered the ineffectiveness of information security programs at 24 major agencies with chief financial officers, GAO noted.

The number of agencies OMB coordinated with for cybersecurity reviews has reduced from 24 to three over two fiscal years.

GAO recommends OMB’s director to submit yearly reports on the effectiveness of information security programs, boost coordination of cyber strategy meetings and work to ensure that inspector general reports align with FISMA requirements.

The Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General released the results of an audit that sought to confirm contractors’ capacity to secure controlled unclassified information on their respective systems and networks.

The audit confirmed a number of gaps in contractors’ security capabilities, including password usage, mitigation of system vulnerabilities and multifactor authentication, DoD OIG said Tuesday.

DoD OIG found that the agency’s contracting offices have not developed approaches that will help validate contractual requirements, send contractor notifications, mark CUI documents and confirm implementation of CUI security controls. In addition, the report confirmed that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency did not take prompt action to mitigate the leak of information from a DoD contracting office.

DoD OIG recommended the DTRA’s director for contract policy and oversight to modify protocols in tracking DoD data-related security incidents. The inspection office also advises revision of security policies for DoD contracting offices as well as performance assessments on contractors.

The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress passed 24 bipartisan recommendations that seek to help reform the Congress’ staffing, accessibility and technological functions.

Some of the recommendations include the modernization of onboarding processes for new representatives and the simplification of the Congress’ human resources division, the office of Rep. Derek Kilmer said Thursday.

Additionally, a number of recommendations call to establish public access to House proceedings and update the Congress’ technologies and systems.

The Select Committee held discussions with industry leaders and House representatives in a move to augment Capitol Hill’s staff retention and citizen engagement.

“These 24 bipartisan recommendations make important strides to strengthening the capacity of the Legislative Branch so we can better serve all Americans,” said Kilmer.

Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent said at an IBM and Partnership for Public Service event that the administration is aiming to go “beyond the technical” in artificial intelligence efforts, Federal News Network reported Friday. Kent, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, noted that AI implementation must also focus on factors such as data collection, regulatory matters and retraining “a broader swath of employees.”

Andrea Bright, assistant secretary of the Customs and Border Protection Office of Human Resources, noted that the Department of Homeland Security component is leveraging AI to potentially support functions such as video analysis for law enforcement applications.

“We are moving towards automating some of that activity that allows the Border Patrol agents to do the work that they want to do,” she said.

Last year, the National Science Foundation launched a Career Compass Challenge that tasks participants to develop an app that matches employees’ skills and relevant government jobs and supports further technology training opportunities.