A new report published by the non-profit organization Partnership for Public Service has criticized the federal government for failing to exert enough effort to recruit or cultivate technological talent that could help change the way agencies approach tech-intensive projects and address subsequent challenges.

The authors of the report, Jennifer Anastasoff and Jennifer Smith, emphasized not only the need to bring on board modern technical experts but also to place them in positions that would maximize their involvement in a project.

On the other hand, senior government officials need to be technologically literate as well, Anastasoff and Smith said, noting that “[familiarity] with and appreciation for modern technology in top leadership positions is so critical for success that such expertise should be no more than one step removed from an agency’s leader.”

The authors also underscored the role of chief information officers, who need to be “highly skilled technological managers who can successfully handle existing technical operations, infrastructure and services.”

The availability of such talent would benefit programs run by the government and those offloaded onto contractors.

“Without these skills, agencies will not have the expertise to fully understand the solutions they need or evaluate which contractors are best to deliver those solutions,” the authors said.

The Defense Department, NASA and the General Services Administration have released a final rule that seeks to revise the instructions for System for Award Management registration.

A Federal Register notice posted Wednesday says the final rule is set to take effect on Oct. 26 and amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require vendors to register through SAM prior to bid submission.

The regulation would direct contracting officers to use the name and address in the offeror’s SAM registration for the unique entity identifier.

The three agencies released the final policy two years after they proposed the rule and sought public comments.

The notice contains the agencies’ responses to feedback about the rule’s potential effect on competition and submission of offers as well as public burden.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed on Wednesday a bill that would authorize the White House to implement its government reorganization plan, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) sponsored the Reforming Government Act of 2018 that would allow Congress to clear reorganization proposals through a simple majority of 51 votes to accelerate passage of such plans.

Bloomberg Government reported that the bill passed the Senate panel through a voice vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) drafted a compromise amendment that would permit a simple majority if five lawmakers from each party would cosponsor the reorganization plan.

The legislation includes a provision that would direct the Office of Management and Budget to guarantee that the proposed reorganization plans would actually save taxpayers’ money.

NASA has published its space exploration roadmap for the next several years, detailing efforts that will transition human space-based activities from low-Earth orbit towards the moon, Mars and beyond.

The roadmap, referred to as the National Space Exploration Campaign, has five strategic goals, namely: the maturation of commercial LEO spaceflight; the installation of space facilities – such as the Gateway lunar orbital station – that will facilitate missions to the surface of the moon; robotic missions to the lunar surface; manned lunar missions; and the testing and evaluation of technologies that would eventually allow for manned missions to the rest of the solar system.

The National Space Exploration Campaign is the agency’s response to the challenge put forth by President Donald Trump’s Space Policy Directive-1 as well as the requirements itemized in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017.

Furthermore, NASA said that the document will help “revitalize and add direction” to the agency’s mission of “expanding the frontiers of human experience and scientific discovery” on the planet and in the cosmos while addressing critical national concerns including economic growth and social development.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory engineers demonstrated light fidelity or Li-Fi networking technology during a trip aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

The technology uses light-emitting diodes that turn on and off for more than a million cycles in a second to send data between wireless communication devices, JHU APL said Thursday.

The demonstration was part of the Navy’s Trident Warrior 2018 experiment effort aimed at identifying and addressing the service branch’s technological gaps in operational environments.

“The Navy wanted to see what the effects of shock and vibration would have on the wireless link and the equipment,” said Ryan Mennecke, communications engineer at APL.

JHU APL began studying light fidelity technology in 2016 under the Defense Information Systems Agency‘s interests, and is now helping DISA test and assess Li-Fi products.

The U.S. military is looking to apply Li-Fi technology to communications systems at vehicles and facilities.

House lawmakers have approved a bill that directs the Office of Management and Budget to provide a modern, standardized reporting system that can translate outdated documents into open data for grant-making agencies and the public.

The Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreements Transparency Act will help promote transparency in taxpayer spending processes, as well as guide Congress in reviewing grants awarded by the Executive branch, the office of Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said Thursday.

\n\n

Foxx said there is a need for the federal government to implement new, uniform data standards for federal grant reporting to keep pace with technological advances that make the U.S. digital society more efficient.

She added that the GREAT Act will help decrease compliance costs for grant recipients and increase public scrutiny of grant spending.

Foxx co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles.

The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development National Coordination Office has issued a request for information on a plan to revise a strategy that aims to influence government research efforts in artificial intelligence.

The RFI comes as the NITRD NCO and the National Science and Technology Council’s Select Committee on AI intend to update the 2016 National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan to align with current priorities, the NSF said in a Federal Register notice posted Wednesday.

The effort responds to the White House’s order to boost federal efforts in AI.

NITRD NCO aims to gather suggestions from the public on what to add, remove or revise in the strategy, as well as collect comments on the past and future implementation of the plan’s existing strategic goals.

The NSF will accept responses to the RFI until Oct. 26.

The National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan guides the government in making long-term investments in AI and developing methods for human-AI collaboration and addresses the various implications of the technology, among other things.

A Government Accountability Office report indicates a standstill in the Small Business Administration‘s procurement scorecard progress and recommends evaluating new scoring methodologies to further encourage contract award opportunities for small businesses.

The SBA changed methodologies of the Small Business Procurement Scorecard in fiscal 2017 in adherence to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2016 and has yet to assess whether the said amendments contribute toward making the scorecard a tool to help the agency achieve its goals, GAO said Thursday.

Some of the changes include decreasing total scorecard grade share for prime contracting achievement; increasing grade share for subcontracting achievement and adding an element that takes note of changes in the number of small businesses that obtained prime contracts.

The GAO noted that as of July, SBA officials have yet to release a draft plan to examine the effects of the revised scorecard.

The watchdog added that the published 2017 scorecards had factual errors that may influence confidence in scorecard data.

GAO has instructed SBA to perform a comprehensive evaluation to analyze the effectivity of scorecard revisions, develop a method to ensure scorecard accuracy prior to publication and lay out a platform to divulge erroneous information.