A bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence in Government Act to provide technical expertise throughout agencies and develop federal AI policy. The office of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement released Wednesday that Portman as well as Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Cory Gardner, R-Colo. and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., seek to improve federal agencies’ implementation of AI to provide better benefits to the general public. 

The 2019 AI in Government Act will mandate agencies to create governance plans to optimize AI technology for public use, create an AI advisory board for potential policy concerns and direct the Office of Personnel Management to identify potential AI-related government positions. The legislation will also establish a Center of Excellence under the General Services Administration for technical workforce matters, AI policy research and industry partnership opportunities. 

“This bipartisan legislation will help ensure our government understands the benefits and pitfalls of this technology as it engages in a responsible, accountable rollout of AI,” Portman noted. 

The legislation has received endorsements from various non-government organizations as well as Microsoft and Facebook.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the Pentagon considers retention of cyber professionals a top challenge, FCW reported Wednesday.

“Our biggest challenge with the red teams is keeping the people. We get out-recruited,” he said Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel.

Shanahan, a 2019 Wash100 winner, noted during the hearing that he wants to boost investments in cyber scholarship programs, red team capabilities and training ranges and that an increase in Cyber Command’s fiscal 2020 budget would fund offensive cyber operations for deterrence effort. According to the report, the Department of Defense allocated nearly $10 billion for offensive operations, cybersecurity and network defense initiatives. 

The White House formed a new joint committee to lead the federal government’s efforts to address the challenges facing the U.S. research community and accelerate innovation, Nextgov reported Tuesday. The Office of Science and Technology Policy said that the committee will coordinate government agencies, academia and the private sector to improve the “safety, integrity and productivity” of research projects. 

“Our nation’s continued global leadership in science and technology depends upon attracting, empowering and retaining our best and brightest talent,” said Kelvin Droegemeier, director of OSTP. “It’s critical we remove any obstacles in the way of the scientists, engineers, and inventors of today and tomorrow, achieving their full potential.” 

The National Science and Technology Council’s committees on Science and Science and Technology Enterprise will lead the group. The committee will initially focus on administrative burdens on federally-funded research, securing research assets, rigor and integrity in research and the existence of safe, inclusive and equitable research settings. Officials from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy will be part of the committee. 

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are planning to acquire T-X trainer aircraft to replace the T-45 Goshawk trainer and F-5 simulator currently deployed by both service branches, Defense News reported Tuesday. A Boeing-Saab team secured a potential $9.2 billion contract to produce a maximum of 475 T-X aircraft and 120 simulators for the U.S. Air Force in 2018. 

“We’re watching the T-X. Obviously the Air Force is going through that process,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, during the Sea-Air-Space conference in Maryland.

Boeing is slated to supply the first T-X simulators to the Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas by 2023 ahead of a potential declaration of the first operational T-X squadron in fiscal 2024. The Navy intends to complete its purchase of helicopter trainers as Boeing continues to produce and deliver T-X aircraft to the Air Force.

The CIA launched an “onion site” on the Tor network designed to strengthen online security by allowing users to browse the agency’s website anonymously. “Our global mission demands that individuals can access us securely from anywhere. Creating an onion site is just one of many ways we’re going where people are,” Brittany Bramell, CIA’s director of public affairs, said in a statement published Tuesday. 

Wired reported that the agency’s Tor onion service works to protect the user’s IP address and browsing activity by bouncing encrypted internet traffic through several chains of devices to make that traffic untraceable. The agency said users need to download and install the Tor browser before they can navigate the website using the given onion address.

The World Factbook, job listings and other information that can be seen on the CIA’s website are available on the onion site.

Rear Adm. John Nowell, the U.S. Navy’s director of military personnel plans and policy, said that the service’s biggest challenge in readiness is “maintaining a stable and predictable budget,” the Navy said Tuesday. Nowell noted during the recent Sea-Air-Space exposition in Maryland that his office is addressing the Navy’s gaps in readiness that were identified in fiscal 2018.

“We really worked to fill those gaps at sea and we’ve addressed a lot those readiness challenges, but we’re not done yet,” he added. James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said at the event’s key luncheon that he seeks to address four main priorities including affordability, agility, lethal capacity and workforce development.

“When we can partner between the industry, the ship’s captain and, wherever we’re supervising on the government side, we get great examples of us delivering great things out to the fleet,” he noted.

Other Navy efforts that were discussed during the conference include the Education for Seapower initiative, which Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith said would help sailors focus on their duties while preparing for life outside of service. This year’s Sea-Air-Space exposition was based on the Chief of Naval Operations’ Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority 2.0 and has the theme “Sustainability, Agility, Superiority.”