Margaret Weichert, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, told Federal Times in an interview published Tuesday about the role of workforce in technology change initiatives and the agency’s plan to focus on performance management.

“Performance management is an area where we’re looking very closely at things that are in the regulatory realm: areas where there are perhaps artificial barriers to rewarding people, limits imposed on how much they could be given a bonus — or how bonuses are distributed between, let’s say, SES and our senior technical leaders, the SL cadre of folks,” Weichert said.

She mentioned OPM’s efforts to bring in government professionals with skills in science, technology, engineering, math and cyber. Weichert, who also serves as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, discussed the need for the government to attract young professionals and exercise flexibility when it comes to core pay and benefits programs.

“In the end, we are still able to attract people, because they’re attracted to the mission, but, overall, we need to be able to be more flexible and respond to the changing nature of the way rewards and recognition work in the broader economy,” she noted. She also shared her thoughts on funding for major change initiatives.

Gen. John Murray, commander of Army Futures Command and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said the U.S. Army plans to finalize a new modernization strategy over the summer providing “a holistic solution” to update military capabilities amid the changing warfare, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday. He announced the plan at the recent Association of the United States Army’s Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Ala. 

The Army’s new strategy will focus on doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel and facilities opposed to last year’s approach that prioritized materiel alone, Murray said. The service this time will look at the “budget reality” to properly plan its modernization initiatives. 

“It will start to drive how we’re organized. It will start to drive the leader development process,” Murray said. “It will start to drive the facilities that we’ll need to either be capitalized or build new.”

Part of the strategy is establishing a multi-domain “capable” force by 2028 and a multi-domain “ready force” by 2035, the general said. The service wants to determine how to organize and equip its forces to prepare for adversaries in the future. The Army also intends to continue working on its top modernization priorities focusing on long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, the network, air-and-missile defense and soldier lethality. 

Acting Defense Secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award winner Patrick Shanahan said the Trump administration’s $718 billion budget request for the Pentagon for fiscal 2020 needs to continue to implement the National Defense Strategy, the Department of Defense website reported Tuesday.

The proposed DoD budget will “reflect difficult, but necessary, decisions that align finite resources with our strategic priorities,” Shanahan said on Tuesday during his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. He said the Pentagon’s proposed spending plan includes $545 billion in base budget and $164 billion in funds for overseas contingency operations.

Military construction projects would receive $3.6B in funds, while emergency construction programs would receive $9.2 billion under the budget request. Shanahan noted the proposed budget also includes a 3.1 percent rise in military pay and reflects double-digit increases in funds for shipbuilding programs, nuclear triad modernization, missile defense systems, space and cyber initiatives.

The Wash100 award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry as selected by the Executive Mosaic team in tandem with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2019.

Officials from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command spoke with over 300 private sector representatives during an industry day dedicated to Seaport Next Generation, the U.S. Navy’s newest contract vehicle for program management and technical services. The event, hosted by the National Defense Industry Association, took place in San Diego, Calif., on March 20, the Navy said Tuesday.

Seaport NxG allows qualifying contractors to provide services for Navy components and the U.S. Marine Corps on an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity basis. The contract vehicle succeeds older iterations of the Seaport program. 

Pat Sullivan, executive director of SPAWAR, delivered the event’s opening address. “Today we find ourselves in an era of  great power competition, and now more than ever, we are looking to industry to increase the speed in which we get advanced capabilities into the hands of our warfighters,” he said.

SPAWAR then administered a discussion between government officials regarding Seaport NxG’s mechanics after the event.

President Trump issued an executive order Tuesday directing federal agencies to address the need to protect the nation against electromagnetic pulse threats.

Electromagnetic attacks, which may be natural or man-made, have the capacity to damage critical technology and infrastructure. The directive tasks federal entities with development of risk-informed strategies, collaboration with industry, launching research and development efforts and consulting with the intelligence community on threat warning and recovery. 

The order also requires agencies to conduct a range of defense, deterrence and nuclear non-proliferation initiatives to increase preparedness in case of an attack.

Trump assigned the Office of Science and Technology Policy to partner with the National Science and Technology Council to conduct annual reviews of agency research efforts on electromagnetic threat preparedness. The assistant to the president for national security affairs will submit an annual report to the president detailing progress on the order.

The federal government may launch information-sharing efforts with industry and provide incentives to private sector entities to encourage innovation that strengthens critical infrastructure against the effects of potential attacks by developing best practices, regulations and appropriate guidance, according to the executive order.

U.S. military officials briefed House lawmakers about efforts to protect U.S. networks from existing and emerging cyber threats.

Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of National Guard Bureau, told the House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee that the guards helped monitor foreign activities in the past midterm elections.

The meeting highlighted how the National Guard and military reserves are providing cyber warfare training, intelligence support, foreign interference monitoring and coordination with industry to help improve national cyber security, the Department of Defense said.

Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey said cyber operations teams are being deployed nationally to help the Army Cyber Command and other government agencies improve cyber readiness.

The Joint Reserve Intelligence Centers are working with the Defense Intelligence Agency to provide cyber warfare training and real-time intelligence support to combatant commands, support agencies, the intelligence community and Navy fleets, according to Navy Reserve Chief Vice Adm. Luke McCollum.

Air Force Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Richard Scobee said his component will transition some information technology support, service and sustainment to the private sector in an effort to allow personnel to focus on “mission assurance and active defensive cyber operations.”