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.

The Department of Defense’s cost estimates for the acquisition of major weapons platforms climbed from $1.92T in 2017 to $2T in 2018 covering 87 programs. According to the annual Selected Acquisition Reports, the total program costs for DoD rose by 4 percent to $624.1B driven by the F-35 program. The total acquisition cost of the program jumped by $15.3B in base year 2012 dollars.

The U.S. Army’s program costs for the AH-64E Apache new build initiative increased by 22.4 percent to $2.4B, while the program costs for the CH-47F Block II cargo helicopter rose nearly 20 percent to $26.9B. The Pentagon also increased its projected costs for several U.S. Army programs such as Common Infrared Countermeasure; Joint Air-to-Ground Missile; Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement and Paladin Integrated Management.

The estimated program costs for U.S. Air Force’s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile increased from $4.7B to approximately $10B. Aside from JASSM, other Air Force initiatives that saw an increase in estimated program costs are the B-2 Defensive Management System – Modernization, Joint Direct Attack Munition and the National Security Space Launch effort.

DoD said several U.S. Navy programs saw increases in cost estimates and those include the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer (DDG 51), AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder, Littoral Combat Ship and the KC-130J transport aircraft.

The Senate voted 67-28 to pass a two-year budget deal to increase defense spending by approximately $45B, Defense News reported Thursday. The $2.7T deal would raise defense funding from spending levels of $716B to $738B in 2020 to $740B in 2021. It also includes an agreement to exclude “poison pill” riders that limit the administration’s ability to direct funds toward the border wall project. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on other lawmakers to approve the deal, which he said would “strengthen our national security and provide our troops with the resources they need” and invest in veterans, cancer research, child care and other programs. The measure, which intends to block a partial government shutdown in the fall, is now headed to the White House for President Trump’s signature.

U.S. Naval War College held a game on military-level approaches to protect energy grids in case of emergencies. Members of finance, energy, government and academic sectors took part in the Defend Forward: 2019 Critical Infrastructure War Game that took place July 25 to 26, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

The school’s Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute hosted the event as the third installment in a series of cyber infrastructure challenges. The Navy intends to use findings to support the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s strategic efforts.

Mark Montgomery, the commission’s executive director, said the private sector holds a large fraction of the national security critical infrastructure. “We need to ensure it is protected and supported at the same level as our government-operated infrastructure,” he said.

Kevin Walsh, Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act executive for the Government Accountability Office, said the scorecard will deploy new data center optimization metrics by the Office of Management and Budget, FCW reported Wednesday. Walsh told attendees of a recent ACT-IAC event that GAO is establishing a balance on evaluation metrics for the FITARA scorecard, which is based on publically available information.

Maria Roat, chief information officer for the Small Business Administration and Agriculture Department CIO Gary Washington noted that while they have made progress in improving their respective agencies’ IT spending through FITARA, the metrics for Federal Information Security Management Act compliance need to improve.

According to Roat, the cybersecurity rating “measures two systems out of hundreds” and is “not indicative of what agencies are doing.”