Congress provided the chief information officer at the Department of Defense with additional authorities and responsibilities through new provisions that took effect Tuesday, Jan. 1, as part of the fiscal 2018 defense authorization measure, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

The amendments would direct the DoD CIO to develop, publish and adopt standards for all cyber and information technology capabilities that operate on networks of service branches and defense agencies.

The law requires the CIO to carry out in-depth reviews of each defense agency’s five-year budget request prior to submission to the comptroller’s office for final assessment to determine whether spending plans meet the cyber and IT requirements of agencies.

The measure would also require the DoD CIO nominee to undergo Senate confirmation, according to the report.

The report noted that some of the amendments correspond to the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, which seeks to build up the role of CIOs across agencies.

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence has found new researching detailing the potential challenges facing state and local governments in managing public sector employees in 2019. SLGE said Thursday that some efforts from top government officials in the coming year should focus on issues related to retirement benefit programs, personnel recruitment and retention, workforce development, financial security, and retirement systems and policies.

The report also states that some officials have begun implementing the strategies to address the challenges.

SLGE said future efforts across state and local governments should include:

• Further promotion of retirement benefit programs to attract new employees
• Developing a “Workforce of the Future” through updated HR policies and processes, employee engagement efforts, use of technology and external communications
• Proper management of government staff sharing across jurisdictional boundaries
• Helping employees get financial security through innovative approaches, such as automatic enrollment
• Updated post-retirement employment policies to provide workforce management flexibility and retirement system actuarial soundness
• Reviewing all retirement systems to provide employee-specific pensions

SLGE noted that recruitment and retention of qualified personnel “will continue to be a challenge for state and local governments.” The center said positions that could be difficult to fill next year include police, engineering, information technology, emergency dispatch, accounting and skilled trade positions.

SLGE helps the public sector in decision making by providing information on leading practices, public retirement plans, health and wellness benefits, workforce demographics and skill set needs and labor force development.

The U.S. Air Force is establishing new specialized cyber teams to deter cyber-attacks targeting its installations across the U.S. and the service’s operations, Fifth Domain reported Thursday.

A top service official said the effort aims to “re-mission” information technology workers to handle active defensive roles as part of the new mission defense teams. Maj. Gen. Robert Skinner, commander of 24th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber, said each Air Force command has begun activating their teams, which will mainly help wings or smaller organizations in their cyber operations.

The Air Force also launched an “enterprise IT as a service” pilot encouraging private companies to conduct specific services commonly assigned to airmen to maintain the service branch’s IT infrastructure. Officials expect the program to enable service members to focus on cyber defense.

“Our core strategic theme is moving from IT focused delivery into mission defense teams,” said Bill Marion, deputy chief information officer of the Air Force.

Skinner said the Air Force also plans to provide cyber protection team training in the future.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government would spend $4B between 2019 and 2023 to implement a bill supporting the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy programs. The bill, known as S. 1457, tasks the Secretary of Energy with developing partnerships for commercial nuclear technology projects, CBO said Dec. 20.

The secretary, as per the bill, must form these partnerships by Sept. 30, 2028 for four projects, and implementing the bill on schedule would boost the department’s expenses. CBO also projects the bill will require $12.6B in funds for a period covering 2019 through 2028.

Projects to result from the bill would include, research, engineering, design, licensing, implementation and demonstration efforts on nuclear energy.

The Government Accountability Office found that the agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector has failed to implement a systematic process for prioritizing financial risks. The lack of an agency-wide process at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may allow companies that offer financial products and services, such as credit cards and loans, to engage in practices that pose financial risks to consumers, GAO said in a Dec. 21 report. 

GAO cited that “companies may obscure the costs of products or use lending practices to trap consumers in a cycle of debt.”

“Implementing a bureau-wide prioritization process could help to ensure that CFPB effectively focuses its resources on the most significant financial risks to consumers and enhances its ability to meet its statutory consumer protection objectives,” the agency said. 

GAO also found that CFPB is failing to utilize its existing policy tools, such as rulemaking, supervision, enforcement and consumer education, to address the risks.

A lapse in federal appropriations that started on Saturday due to a partial government shutdown has affected some federal agencies, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

About 32K employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been precluded from going to work, including 1.5K personnel at DHS’ management directorate who have been put on emergency furlough.

“Only those functions and activities that are exempt or excepted from the work restrictions specified in the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) may continue during a lapse in appropriations,” according to DHS’ updated guidance on the shutdown.

The Department of Commerce is set to furlough more than 80 percent of its workforce, according to the agency’s contingency plans in the event of a shutdown.

The report also cited the shutdown’s impact on staffing levels at some public-facing agencies such as the Department of Interior’s National Park Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office and economic research service.

Some uniformed service members at the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Health and Human Services’ Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s Commissioned Officer Corps are also facing uncertainty when it comes to their pay dates due to the shutdown, the report added.
 

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order that would keep U.S. firms from buying and using products from Chinese telecommunications firms ZTE and Huawei, Reuters reported Thursday.

Sources told Reuters the White House could release the executive order as soon as January.

The policy would implement the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and require the Department of Commerce to bar U.S. companies from purchasing telecommunications equipment from foreign manufacturers associated with national security risks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The report said updates on the proposed order come as U.S. wireless communications providers seek partners in preparation for the adoption of 5G networks.
 

Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, has said one of her goals for calendar year 2019 is to revise the DoD Instruction 5000.02 policy, Defense News reported Thursday.

“In 2019, one of my key objectives is to rewrite 5000.02,” she told reporters on Dec. 17.

 “We are going to invert that approach and take a clean sheet of paper and write the absolute bare minimum to be compliant in 5000.02, and encourage program managers and contracting officers to add to that as they need for specific programs.”

Lord said she intends to come up with an intellectual property policy for implementation across the department and expects the Defense Innovation Board to release its report on software development by the end of March.

Other goals she mentioned include the move to open the Selected Acquisition Reports on some defense programs to the public again and advance the use of prototyping and other transaction authorities.

“Usually they should be used when you don’t have a clear requirement. So, true prototyping when you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Lord said of OTAs.

“Prototyping early on, probably before you get to the middle-tier acquisition,” she added.