Ellen Lord, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, has announced plans to increase transparency of the Pentagon’s acquisition efforts following recent pressure from Congress, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The plan comes after lawmakers questioned the Navy for restricting access to information in a 2017 report on its multi-billion dollar Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. 
 
The service stamped the report as “For Official Use Only,” which was previously open to the public during the Obama administration. 

To address concerns in Congress, Lord said her office is working on “a bunch of guidelines and internal rules” to promote transparency. 

The Department of Defense’s acquisition chief intends to encourage the agency to refrain from using the “For Official Use Only” designation in the reports, according to her spokesperson.

In October, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, also expressed concern about the Trump administration’s “abuse of processes designed to keep the public informed about the weapons programs.”

He noted previously restricted reports contained information on failed systems.

The fiscal year 2019 defense policy bill already directed the DoD to reduce future Selected Acquisition Reports labeled for official use only, unless allowed by Congress. 

SAR provides lawmakers, defense analysts and journalists with information about the status of major government programs, including original estimated costs and delivery schedules.

The U.S. Navy has named upcoming Arleigh Burke-class destroyers after former senators Jeremiah Denton and Ted Stevens.

The USS Jeremiah Denton takes the name of a Vietnam war veteran who represented Alabama as a U.S. senator, the Navy said Friday.

Denton, a Navy Cross recipient, joined the military as a test pilot after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1947, and went on to develop tactical approaches that the service branch still applies.

Meanwhile, the USS Ted Stevens honors a former member of the Army Air Corps who served as senator for Alaska over a tenure of 41 years, the branch said in a separate announcement.

Both ships will measure 509 feet in length, and will undergo construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula, Miss.

The guided missile destroyers will feature anti-air, surface and anti-submarine warfare equipment that are geared to function simultaneously.

President Donald Trump has sent a letter to congressional members to discuss illegal immigration and the importance of border security.

Trump presented statistical data about security and humanitarian crises at the Southern Border in the letter, according to a White House news release posted Friday.

He noted that the Customs and Border Protection and its agents arrested 17K individuals with existing criminal records in fiscal 2018 and that immigration courts now have a backlog of 800K cases.

“Effective border security must dramatically reduce the entry of illegal immigrants, criminals, and drugs; it must keep out terrorists, public safety threats, and those otherwise inadmissible under U.S. law; and it must ensure that those who do enter without legal permission can be promptly and safely returned home,” Trump noted.

He called on Congress to support the proposed border wall, eliminate the Flores Settlement Agreement and amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to facilitate the return of smuggled minors into their countries.
 

The federal government’s partial shutdown is slated to run for a third week, affecting around 800,000 government employees and resulting in potential cash-flow deficit for contractors, Federal Times reported Friday.

Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, said a cash-flow shortage will result from contractors not getting paid by the government despite having workers needing to perform services under contract. Chvotkin noted that the financial impact of the shutdown will vary depending on the size and cash reserves of affected contractors, with small businesses facing greater risk.

Previously, the federal government experienced a 16-day shutdown in 2013 where some contractor employees were laid off and furloughed workers were not paid during or after the shutdown, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. Senate Democrats have pointed out that thousands of employees from the State Department, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Agriculture are working without pay.

House Democrats passed two bills this week in a bid to end the partial government shutdown without funding President Trump’s border wall, New York Post reported Thursday.

One bill would provide temporary budgeting to eight of the nine closed agencies until September, while another would fund the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted the chamber will not support construction of Trump’s wall.

“We’re not doing a wall,” Pelosi said. “The fact is a wall is an immorality. It’s not who we are as a nation.” Without the wall’s funding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper chamber will not “waste its time” to pass the House proposal, CNBC reported Thursday. 

White House issued a statement on Thursday warning that Trump’s advisers would recommend that the president veto the Democratic bills. The president “cannot accept legislation that provides unnecessary funding for wasteful programs while ignoring the nation’s border security needs,” the White House said. Bipartisan congressional leaders expect to meet with White House officials on Friday to discuss Trump’s requested $5B funding for the border wall.