Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., re-introduced a bill aiming to improve U.S. national security through a modernized security clearance system and a new workforce to handle national security and public safety missions. The Modernizing the Trusted Workforce for the 21st Century Act would also help the government reduce its background investigation backlog, Warner said in a statement released Friday. The bill was introduced to the Senate in 2018.  

In a letter to top White House and intelligence officials, Warner said the current vetting process for security clearances in the government is too complicated, too long, costly and lacks modernized technology and processes. 

“We are taking too many security risks and losing talented people who are not willing to endure a years-long process,” Warner said, who also serves as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Our current system is broken and needs a revolution.” 

The bill would task the executive branch with managing the background investigation backlog crisis, consolidate the National Background Investigation Bureau at the Pentagon and promote innovation in the clearance process.

The Office of Management and Budget has notified Congress that the president’s fiscal 2020 budget request for the Department of Defense could be ready by mid-March, National Defense reported Monday.

“We got an email this morning from [the Office of Management and Budget] saying that they are projecting right now to give us the skinny [defense] budget March 12 with full budget documents … on March 18,” John Lucio, a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee staffer, said during a panel discussion Monday at the Tactical Wheeled Vehicles Conference in Monterey, Calif.

The White House’s defense budget for fiscal 2020 was originally scheduled to be issued Tuesday, Feb. 5, but was delayed due to a partial government shutdown, according to the report.

Lucio said the White House’s fiscal 2020 budget request is reported to be worth $750B, including a base budget that is close to the caps set under the Budget Control Act.
 

NASA’s Security Operations Center continued addressing cybersecurity threats throughout the government shutdown, Space.com reported Monday. The center reported at least one cyber threat per day against the space agency. 

“NASA is one of the — it is the most attacked agency in the federal government when it comes to cybersecurity,” Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, said at a town hall meeting in Washington DC.

Renee Wynn, chief information officer at NASA, said that the center never ceased operations despite the shutdown that furloughed almost 95 percent of the agency’s workforce. SOC performs cybersecurity operations 24 hours a day from NASA’s California-based Ames Research Center, the report noted.

The General Services Administration is looking for input on a proposed blanket purchase agreement for phase I work under the agency’s Centers of Excellence systems modernization program, GSA officials said Thursday in a GitHub post.

The Discovery BPA vehicle enables GSA to acquire initial discovery and assessment services from a selection of multiple awardees specializing in at least three CoE functional areas. GSA said the model allows it to release awards rapidly and obtain information technology services through an “as-needed” basis. The agency noted that its CoEs plan to make the resulting capabilities available through the GSA IT Schedule 70.

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During a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington, D.C., Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the MDA is considering acquiring interceptors, National Defense reported Friday.

Greaves noted that the agency is conducting assessments of available interceptor missiles after completing an analysis of potential capabilities for hypersonic defense. He said the agency seeks interceptors fast enough to thwart hypersonic weapons from potential adversaries. According to Greaves, the MDA has coordinated with industry and is considering the use of directed energy weapons.

The MDA’s analysis is undergoing reviews with the Department of Defense and is slated to be released soon, he added.