Soraya Correa, chief procurement officer at the Department of Homeland Security, has released a notice to guide the industry on the submission of responses to requests for information and solicitations issued on or before Dec. 21.

According to a FedBizOpps notice published Thursday, the document does not cover the procurement and contracting actions of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Protective Services.

Correa issued the notice in response to a funding lapse that took effect on Dec. 22.

Responses to RFIs are allowed to be submitted within three business days following the resolution of the appropriations lapse at DHS, while inquiries and comments on RFPs and requests for quotations are due within five business days after the shutdown ends.

DHS will accept offers in response to RFQs, RFPs and other solicitations within seven business days once the funding lapse is resolved.

“DHS intends for the contracting officer to prepare and issue formal amendments to solicitations upon the conclusion of the funding lapse,” Correa noted.

“However, in the absence of specific written guidance issued by the contracting officer for the particular RFI, RFP or RFQ, the deadlines set forth above shall apply.”
 

The U.S. Air Force used $7M for commercial satellite weather data as part of an effort to determine whether or not the data would meet military requirements, Space News reported Thursday.

The obligated funds come from the service branch’s congress-approved $20M budget for the Commercial Weather Data Pilot Program. John Dreher, weather systems branch chief at Massachusetts-based Hanscom Air Force Base, said at the American Meteorological Society’s recent conference that $3M in contracts are underway.

The service branch is also working with accelerator organizations to award contracts at a faster rate, the report noted.

During a Surface Navy Association event, Adm. Christopher Grady, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said the U.S. Navy and industrial base need better flexibility to accelerate shipbuilding and maintenance operations, USNI News reported Thursday.

Grady noted the industrial base’s growth rate is not keeping up with the Navy’s maintenance demands, with the suppliers being “optimized for cost efficiency” as a result. He added that uneven funding further complicates the Navy’s need to expand its capacity for modernization and sustainment.

A report from the Department of Defense released in September states that the defense industrial base lost over 20,500 firms since 2000 and growing the number of firms involved in projects is crucial to maintain a healthy industrial base.

Grady said the Navy could encourage more shipyards to compete for work by making efforts such as acquiring portable dry docks to be leased to shipyards.

The U.S. Air Force’s 574th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron has installed a 3D-printed, titanium-based component onto an F-22 Raptor jet during depot maintenance operations at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, the USAF said Thursday. The additive manufactured bracket doesn’t corrode and will replace an aluminum part in the cockpit’s kick panel assembly.

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Robert Lewin, director of the 574th AMXS, said that F-22 personnel has faced difficulties on the availability of additional components due to its small fleet size. The new component, built layer by layer through a laser-driven powder bed fusion procedure, can be ordered and delivered for installation within three days.

“Once we get to the more complicated parts, the result could be a 60-70 day reduction in flow time for aircraft to be here for maintenance,” Lewin noted.

The Air Force said it’s partnered with industry on the additive manufacturing effort and expects to incorporate five more 3D-printed metallic parts on the F-22.

The Transportation Security Administration failed to properly inform Congress about how it buys security-related technologies despite a mandate to justify acquisitions worth over $30M before awarding a contract. In a report published Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said TSA is required to detail security-related technology acquisitions to Congress under the Transportation Security Acquisition Reform Act. 

However, the agency has been providing limited information to lawmakers since 2014 and only delivered its first full report in August 2018. 

“TSA has not effectively communicated internally its implementation decisions for what constitutes an SRT under TSARA,” GAO said. 

TSA also failed to issue a guidance on which acquired technologies are considered an SRT, which could impact how the agency applies policies in future acquisitions under TSARA, GAO said.  

To address reporting concerns, GAO recommends that TSA revise its policies to include reporting on tasks, delivery orders and services related to SRT. The agency agreed with the recommendation. In July, TSA provided $1.4B for the acquisition of security technologies and associated services. 

The Government Accountability Office found the Department of Defense’s nine cross-functional teams have created to resolve issues in the DoD’s business processes have yet to implement 104 out of 135 reform efforts, GAO said Thursday.

Pentagon officials noted that the department was not able to fulfill four of nine of the teams’ funding requests in fiscal year 2018 due to a lack of resources. The officials added that around $6.7B is needed to implement the team’s initiatives from FYs 2018 through 2024.

According to GAO, the DoD has not developed a strategy to identify and prioritize available funding to implement the  reforms. The government watchdog recommends the Secretary of Defense direct the Chief Management Officer to establish a funding identification and prioritization process to execute the teams’ reform efforts.

The GAO report ensures the DoD’s compliance with section 911 of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, have reintroduced a bill to secure the energy grid via government-industry engineering efforts. The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act would establish government-industry partnerships eliminating software vulnerabilities that create openings for cyber attacks, King’s office said Thursday.

The reintroduction intends to address the bill’s failure to pass the House before the 115th Congress’ end, despite the legislation unanimously passing the Senate in December. The legislation would create a two-year pilot program to study concealed security threats, and direct the secretary of energy to report results to Congress.

The bill would also task a group to assess National Laboratories’ proposed technologies, and form a national cyber strategy protecting the energy grid from potential attacks.

“Our bipartisan bill has broad support, as evidenced by its passage in the Senate last December, and I hope the new Congress will take swift action on it so we can proactively protect our country’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks,” said King.