Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., introduced a legislation to modernize the process through which federal grant recipients report to the government. The Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency or GREAT Act would enforce data standards for reported grant information, the congress said.

The bill would define core data elements for the management of financial assistance awards, and apply technologies designed to reduce compliance costs.

The GREAT Act would also leverage consolidated collection and access of open data to support the monitoring of federal grants and agreements.

House Rep. Robin Kelly, ranking member of the subcommittee of information technology, warned that the ongoing government shutdown might lead to challenges in attracting IT talent for federal agencies. The temporary closure of agencies expects to have “massive short-term impacts” on more than 800K federal workers, Kelly said in a statement posted Wednesday.

The democrat from Illinois’s 2nd congressional district also warned the shutdown adds to the factors that might discourage workers to enter the government. Kelly cited that as the government cannot compete on salary with the private sector, the chance of working without pay with the government might also lead IT talent away.

“How can we ever hope to recruit or maintain IT talent when hardworking government workers are told: ‘sorry, you aren’t getting paid, but you still need to come to work’ or ‘sorry, but no paycheck this week because of politics?’ Large private sector companies never say this to their employees and these are our competitors when it comes to IT talent recruitment,” she said.

Kelly called on Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to support the bills recently passed by House lawmakers to reopen the government. 

The Department of Defense launched a new pilot program to increase the understanding of business operations between military and commercial sectors. The DoD said Wednesday its Defense-Industry Talent Exchange Pilot Program will involve 13 military and industry participants who would share the best practices from respective sectors. The program will seek high-performing, mid-career civilians who have demonstrated potential to serve as leaders.

“In its inaugural year, this pilot program implements Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan’s July 2018 guidance on the use of a new public-private talent exchange authority provided by congress,” said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of human capital initiatives at the DoD.

He added that the department would use the pilot program’s results to inform future efforts.
 

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer wants to improve how the service branch plans its spending, finds partnerships and speeds up the deployment of new technologies to boost the capabilities of its service members, USNI News reported Wednesday. Spencer said he’s looking for ways to increase the budget and accelerate the acquisition process to empower sailors and the civilian workforce. 

“We’re not going to have more money; we’ve got to be smarter with what we have,” the secretary said during an event at the Center for a New American Security. 

He called on Navy officials to work with innovators outside the Pentagon to help research and development projects. 

“And I will tell you that almost 90 percent of the problems, 95 percent of the problems, someone outside the building has either solved that problem or has an algorithm to solve the problem that you can apply yourself,” he said.

Spencer also noted the Navy as well as the Marine Corps should prioritize shorter timelines to increase innovation, determine and fix more problems across the service branches. 

“I’ve got to make sure that the whole system understands the urgency,” he said. “We have the dollars we, finally, need. We have the resources. Time is something that we can’t buy, and we have to have everyone focus on that.”

Acting Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist confirmed the Pentagon has received the budget figure for fiscal year 2020 and a rollout remains on schedule for February, MilitaryTimes reported Wednesday. 

Officials had expressed concerns that the Department of Defense might delay the release of its budget as the agency announced at end of 2018 that it had yet to receive a final figure. Norquist declined to reveal the exact budget for DoD.

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The agency originally requested a $733B defense top-line figure, which was initially denied and reduced to $700B by President Trump. However, in December, Trump agreed to increase the figure to $750B following a meeting with former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional defense leaders.

The U.S. Navy is set to commission LCS 13, the littoral combat ship to be named USS Wichita, on Jan. 12 at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., the ship’s designated homeport. Kate Lehrer, wife of Wichita-based former news anchor Jim Lehrer, will order the Freedom-variant LCS’ activation as the ship’s sponsor, and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., will administer the ceremony’s principal address, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

The future USS Wichita, designed as an LCS, is geared to deter mines, underwater vessels and fast surface vessels at near-shore scenarios. The ship is the third to carry Wichita’s name, following a replenishment oiler and a heavy cruiser.

Lockheed Martin leads the development of Freedom-variant ships.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have said the service has begun to develop a strategic vision for the Arctic region to ensure its capability to meet the National Defense Strategy’s objectives.

“We must be ready to defend our security interests and deter aggression by major powers,” Wilson and Goldfein wrote in a Defense News commentary published Wednesday.

They mentioned the military branch’s efforts to project U.S. strength in the Arctic region, such as upgrading space surveillance systems in Thule, Greenland, and exploring approaches to update radars.

“Meanwhile we continue to train and equip for cold weather operations, managing the Defense Department’s oldest polar survival school and retaining the capacity to land on ice with unique, ski-equipped aircraft,” Goldfein and Wilson noted.

Aside from the Air Force’s partnership with Canada, they said the service is exploring opportunities to collaborate with other allies in the Arctic via exercises such as sharing best practices and reconnaissance, weather and communications data.
 

President Donald Trump has said he may pursue a national emergency to fund the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border should negotiations over spending fail, Federal Times reported Wednesday.

“I think we might work a deal and if we don’t, I may go that route. I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want,” he told reporters Wednesday at the White House.

The report said the administration might redirect funds of the Department of Defense towards the border wall.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he warned Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan that the president’s emergency declaration plan would result in “a major breach of relations between DoD and the oversight committees.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) cited the move’s potential impact on the Future Years Defense Program, according to the report.

“Every dollar you take out of the FYDP is a dollar you take away from readiness, sustainment — and we’re talking about medical facilities for service members, overseas [military construction], hangars for our F-22s,” said Schatz, a ranking member of the Senate Appropriation Committee’s military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee.
 

Rep. Mac Thornberry believes that setting up a Space Force as a new branch of the U.S. military will continue receiving support from both sides of the aisle even though the House of Representatives is now under the control of the Democratic Party, Space News reported Tuesday.

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“There has been consistent bipartisan support for greater emphasis on space, including organizational reform,” the outgoing House Armed Services Committee chairman told reporters recently, even as he noted that any proposal to setup a Space Force would likely be heavily scrutinized.

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Recent reports indicate that the Department of Defense will recommend, in its upcoming legislative proposal, the establishment of a Space Force as a sixth military branch, albeit under the U.S. Air Force, an arrangement akin to that between the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy.

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Such a proposal may be more palatable to Rep. Adam Smith, the incoming HASC chairman, who had supported earlier legislation to create a Space Force within the USAF.

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On the other hand, Smith has opposed the establishment of an independent Space Force, which he considers fiscally wasteful and a poor response to space-based national security issues.

The Bureau of Fiscal Service under the Treasury Department is slated to implement two-factor authentication for its citizen services over the next few years, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Marshall Henry, a program manager for the bureau’s Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation, said the implementation schedule for the more than 10 fiscal services isn’t set in stone.

“Our next big driver is to set up a federation bridge, which will be the hub for all programs to connect to,” he said. Henry noted that the bureau also plans to apply the authentication approach as a shared service on a long-term basis.

The Fiscal Service’s citizen-focused interfaces include the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System which enables users to pay taxes online, and another payment platform for debt owed to the government.