The National Space Council will discuss proposals to establish a space-dedicated service branch at a meeting scheduled for Oct. 23, Space News reported Monday.

 Vice President Mike Pence said in a tweet that the meeting will cover existing progress and steps leading to the development of a Space Force.

Members of the council will meet at the National Defense University. The meeting follows a previous one in June where President Trump first introduced the Space Force formation plan.

The upcoming assembly marks the National Space Council’s fourth public meeting.

The Department of Energy‘s National Nuclear Security Administration has selected four universities to operate new centers of excellence under a shared allotment of $40.5M.

These new centers will work to foster collaboration between the NNSA and academia under the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program, the DOE said Monday.

George Washington University will collect $12.5M to operate the Capital/DOE Alliance Center which will focus on high-pressure material science. Russell Hemley will lead this center.

Texas A&M University will receive $12.5M to administer the Center for Research Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids, which will study how material microstructure affects the mechanical performance of 3D printed products. Michael Demkowicz will lead this center.

The University of California San Diego will collect $10.5M to oversee the Center for Matter under Extreme Conditions, which will focus on high-energy density physics research and development. Farhat Beg will lead this center.

Lastly, the University of Michigan will receive $5M to administer the Center for Laboratory Astrophysics, which will  investigate high-energy density physics. Carolyn Kuranz and R. Paul Drake will lead this center.

Each university will collect respective funds over a five-year period.

“These cooperative agreements strengthen the nuclear security enterprise by advancing areas of science relevant to the stockpile stewardship mission and ensuring a pipeline of future scientists to carry out that mission,” said Dr. Kathleen Alexander, assistant deputy administrator for research, development, test and evaluation at NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs.

Dana Deasy, chief information officer at the Defense Department, has urged agency leaders to consider employing mid- to late-career private sector executives eligible to work for the government, FedScoop reported Monday.

Deasy said at the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s 2018 Imagine Nation ELC event that government agencies should recruit both young and experienced workers to replace IT employees planning to retire.

The former JPMorgan Chase global chief information officer is set to spearhead DoD’s modernization program, which will involve adopting a multicloud environment, incorporating artificial intelligence in defense operations and expanding the department’s technology workforce.

Deasy noted there is a need for the DoD to share the weight of its mission to future employees, as it completes its modernization initiatives.

The Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management recently talked about how the Trump administration is working to upgrade the skills of the federal workforce as part of the government’s IT modernization efforts, FedScoop reported Monday.

Margaret Weichert said during the 2018 Imagine Nation ELC conference that, regarding IT modernization and the acquisition of tech talent, she and her office discovered that “we need the people here in government, particularly the people who have the desire to be here.”

Weichert noted that “it’s always cheaper and more effective to train your own” and that she and her office are now looking at various talent development efforts, such as the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center initiative, to reskill government employees.

Weichert’s preference for providing retraining aligns with the results of a recent survey conducted by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council.

On average, more than half of the survey’s respondents considered it critical for government employees to undergo training and development in order for their respective agencies to realize their IT modernization goals. The survey recommended that agency leaders and human resource departments work together to provide employees with the requisite preparation.

The F-35 joint program office has announced that more than 80 percent of Lockheed Martin-built fighter jets operating in the U.S. and overseas are now approved to recommence flight following the completion of a fuel line inspection, USNI News reported Monday.

The F-35 JPO grounded the fighter aircraft on Thursday to facilitate the inspection of a fuel tube within the jet’s engine in response to an ongoing investigation into an F-35B crash that occurred on Sept. 28 near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.

JPO said in a statement that Pratt & Whitney has started to rapidly purchase additional parts to speed up repairs on the remaining aircraft.

The program office noted that it continues to collaborate with service branches to prioritize the replacement of fuel tubes using its current inventory of spares.

“The issue is not expected to impact F-35 deliveries and the program remains on track to meet its target of 91 aircraft for the year,” JPO said.

The Department of Homeland Security’s national risk management center will create a new information and communications technology task force to help address risks to the supply chain, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The report said the task force is expected to work on efforts to reduce such risks in the federal acquisition process in 2019.

“On the one hand, we have to make sure in the procurement cycle we are enabling the contracting officers to write the contracts the right way with cybersecurity in mind,” Chris Krebs, undersecretary for the national protection and programs directorate at DHS, said at the CyberNext conference.

“But also as the decision process comes through it can be intelligence and threat informed so that we can knock off the bad options if and when they are presented.”

He noted that his office is considering how to operationalize the information it has about a compromise and how to implement risk management measures to safeguard federal networks.

“One of things the ICT task force will consider is what are those incentives to drive more trustworthy options?,” Krebs said.

“The federal government has a great incentive package through the procurement cycle and the power of the purse.”

Krebs said the ICT task force is scheduled to have its initial meeting this week through the critical infrastructure partnership advisory council.
 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, have issued a joint statement saying the federal budget deficit reached $779B in fiscal 2018, about $113B higher than the shortfall recorded in the previous fiscal year.

The FY 2018 deficit was equivalent to 3.9 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and $70B less than the projected shortfall in the Mid-Session Review for FY 2019, according to the statement published Monday.

Total receipts associated with individual and corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement receipts, excise taxes, miscellaneous and customs duties increased by 0.4 percent to $3.33T in FY 2018.

FY 2018 total outlays hit $4.1T, about $127B higher than the outlays recorded in FY 2017 and $63.3B lower than MSR’s estimate.

The document listed the expenditures at several agencies in the previous fiscal year with the Department of Health and Human Services landing the top spot at $1.12T, followed by the Treasury at $629.B and the Defense Department at $600.7B.

Mnuchin and Mulvaney reported that the U.S. has created more than 4M jobs since the start of the new administration, while real wage compensation and real median household income rose by 1.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.