The House Appropriations Committee introduced a draft spending bill that would authorize $690.2 billion in fiscal 2020 discretionary funds for the Department of Defense, reflecting an increase of $15.8 billion from the enacted discretionary budget for the current fiscal year. The committee said Tuesday the bill includes a base budget of $622.1 billion and $68.1 billion in overseas contingency operations funds – an increase of $15.6 billion and $165 million from current levels, respectively. 

The proposed measure would allot a budget of $153.9 billion to back the proposed 3.1 percent increase in military pay and fund end strength of 1.3 million troops. The panel proposed to allocate $142 billion for the procurement of aircraft, ships, vehicles and other defense equipment. The bill would also set aside $256.5B for operation and maintenance, $101.5 billion for research, development and test and evaluation, $33.8 billion for other DoD programs and $1.45 billion for revolving and management funds. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs is teaming with Virta Health, a San Francisco-based healthcare company, to manage the condition of patients and offer non-invasive treatments with type 2 diabetes. The partnership will allow 400 veterans to join the Virta Treatment program, to assist patients in maintaining glycemic control without the need for medicines, VA said Monday. The agency added that the treatment will be provided for free at a span of 12 months.

“Many Veterans have type 2 diabetes, and it is strongly linked to obesity, so we are excited to explore Virta Health’s approach to tackling this debilitating and costly condition,” said Robert Wilkie, secretary at VA and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration anticipates obtaining data from various government satellites and commercial sensors as it plans for its future satellite observing architecture, SpaceNews reported Monday. Karen St. Germain, director of NOAA’s office of systems architecture and advanced planning for satellite and information service, said the Joint Polar Satellite System in low-Earth orbit could feed data to the agency in the mid-2030s.

Germain noted that NOAA can look for approaches to leverage new acquisition measures and commercial technology platforms to build up data derived from JPSS and that the agency’s near-term focus is to have imagers in geostationary orbit by 2030. She said the agency started collecting data from “a half dozen” satellites operated by foreign partners in the last year, including India’s Scatterometer Satellite and Japan’s Himawari 8 weather satellite.

NOAA’s Satellite Observing System Architecture study underscored the value of imagery collection in Tundra orbits to enhance high-latitude regional observations.

“Particularly in the high latitudes, we believe we’re going to be seeing more drilling, more fishing, more tourism, more shipping,” St. Germain said. “That’s going to mean we need more situational awareness when it comes to the risks associated with weather and environmental phenomenon. That’s a capability we’re looking at in the future architecture.”

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission is working to establish an organizational structure and determine resource allocations to support the newly created unit’s three main cyber defense strategies, FCW reported Monday. 

The 14-member interagency commission was established under the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and seeks to create working teams to handle offensive strategy, deterrence-focused defensive strategy and international threat regulation efforts. Issues covered by the three strategies may span electoral interference, 5G implementation, espionage and threats to critical infrastructure including financial institutions and the electric grid.

“There’s no central leadership and there’s no policy that our adversaries - or our allies for that matter - can discern about what we’re going to do in a particular situation, and my belief is that until we clarify that, we’re going to keep getting hit,” said Sen. Angus King, co-chair of the commission.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development expects to complete 20 percent of its modernization by end of 2019 as the agency has secured another $5 million from the Technology Modernization Fund to support the project, Federal News Network reported Monday. 

The additional funding is the second grant from the agency’s $20 million loan to support upgrades to the agency’s seven mainframe systems. Kevin Cooke, deputy chief information officer of HUD, said the agency developed a pilot program to manage hundreds of thousands of lines of code for the mainframes.

“All of the architecture work is done,” Cooke said. “The money will allow that jump into the actual projects, not just the proof of concept.” 

TMF has more than $35 million remaining budget for agencies, and board officials are preparing to begin third round of loans.  In 2018, the board received 50 request worth over $500 million and funded seven agencies. 

The U.S. Navy authenticated the keel of its first John Lewis-class fleet oiler, marking the beginning of the ship’s construction. USNS John Lewis underwent its keel-laying ceremony Monday at General Dynamics NASSCO’s facility in San Diego, Naval Sea Systems Command said Monday.

“These ships are steadfast, reliable and allow our warships to defend our freedoms for which Representative Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting,” said Mike Kosar, program manager for support ships, boats and craft at Program Executive Office, Ships.

Ships under the new class build on commercial design standards and will function as part of the service’s combat logistics force.

The U.S. Navy plans to prioritize integration of special operations forces, unmanned systems and new undersea weapons into its new Block VI Virginia-class attack submarines, USNI News reported Monday. Capt. Chris Hanson, manager of Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarine program, said his office hasn’t finalized the design of the new submarine but the focus areas will be part of the ship. 

“We’re currently in the phase of looking at various concepts and capabilities and determining their feasibility for the rest of this year,” Hanson said at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference.

He said his office is analyzing potential payloads and other equipment to support the Block VI Virginia-class submarines’ power, heating, cooling and communications and other areas. Hanson added that the final decisions may come in 2020. The Navy aims to begin initial production of the submarines in fiscal year 2024.