The Office of Management and Budget and three other agencies released the draft action plan for the Federal Data Strategy to leverage data as a strategic asset. The document consists of 16 steps categorized into shared, community and agency-specific actions needed to implement the strategy.

Shared actions include the establishment of an OMB data council by November, creation of a data science training and credentialing catalog by the General Services Administration by February 2020 and development of a data ethics framework by November 2020.

For community actions, federal agencies should launch efforts to enhance data resources for artificial intelligence-related research and development by February 2020 and improve geospatial data standards by August 2020. The action plan also calls for agency-specific actions such as constituting a data governance body and assessing data and related infrastructure maturity.

Acting OMB Director Russell Vought also issued a memorandum detailing the mission statement, principles and best practices under the Federal Data Strategy. OMB will accept comments on the draft action plan through July 5.

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft bill that allots $35 million for the 2020 Technology Modernization Fund, exhibiting a $10 million boost from 2019’s TMF allotment, Nextgov reported Monday. The proposed amount under the Financial Services and General Government draft bill, however, is below the Trump Administration’s requested budget of $150 million.

Agencies use TMF funds for information technology projects approved by the Technology Modernization Board. The fund began in fiscal year 2018 with an initial allotment of $100 million. The government has used $90M of the funds for projects with multiple agencies and federal components including the departments of Energy and Agriculture.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command will operate under a new name as Naval Information Warfare Systems Command as part of increased focus on information warfare. Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, announced the name change during a recent Information Warfare Senior Leadership Symposium in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Navy said Monday. 

“This new name more accurately describes the full totality of the mission, supporting naval warfare — from seabed to space,” Richardson said. 

NAVWAR will focus on providing the Navy with new information warfare capabilities along with sustainment efforts to help in naval, joint, coalition and other national missions.

“In this era of great power competition, information is a fundamental element of warfare, an essential concept of the Navy’s strategy, and a warfare area that transcends the traditional domains of air, sea, land and space,” said NAVWAR Commander Rear Adm. Christian Becker. 

The Navy hopes renaming SPAWAR would help clarify the command’s mission and purpose for service members, stakeholders, industry partners, the information warfare community and the Naval Research and Development Establishment.

The House Armed Services Committee released its draft fiscal 2020 defense policy bill directing the comptroller general to report on the Department of Defense’s electronic warfare and electromagnetic threat mitigation efforts, C4ISRNET reported Monday.

The draft defense authorization bill directs the comptroller general to provide updates on matters such as the electronic warfare executive committee’s progress and the implementation of the 2013 Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy. The House panel intends to receive such updates by March 2020.

According to the draft legislation, the committee is concerned over the Pentagon’s efforts to fortify its defenses and “operate in an environment where peer and near-peer adversaries could use existing and emerging capabilities that degrade use of the electromagnetic spectrum.” 

The final defense policy act for fiscal 2019 included provisions for electronic warfare initiatives which cover joint electromagnetic spectrum activities and the development of an electronic warfare mission area.