The Government Accountability Office has called on the armed forces to assess hiring, training and retention programs at their depots to address the emerging challenges keeping skilled workers for future maintenance works. In a report published in mid-December, GAO found that current shortages in skilled personnel and the aging workforce at military depots have delayed maintenance for aircraft, ships and other weapon systems.  

The agency added that the service branches’ plans to address workforce-related concerns appear outdated or not being implemented. GAO recommended the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy review the effectiveness of their depot workforce programs to improve hiring, training and retention efforts. The four service branches plan to revise their program plans by end of fiscal year 2019. 

“Increasing numbers of depot workers have been retiring, and the number eligible to retire is expected to increase,” GAO said. 

The agency added that it commonly takes five years or more “to become proficient in some occupations, DOD must systematically plan and prepare to hire, train and retain the workforce it needs to support its vital maintenance and repair mission.”

Military depots have launched efforts to help maintain their workforces, such as offering recruitment and hiring incentives, providing training and apprenticeship programs and partnering with local vocational schools. For the report, GAO interviewed depot officials and analyzed depot strategic plans and personnel data from fiscal years 2013 through 2017.

The partial government shutdown extended to its fourth day on Tuesday as President Donald Trump continues his call for lawmakers to approve funding for a border wall, The Hill reported Tuesday.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open,” he told reporters Tuesday.

“I can tell you, it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” he added.

Reuters reported that funding for the departments of Justice, Agriculture and Homeland Security and other federal programs expired early Saturday and a top aide of Trump said the partial shutdown could run through Jan. 3.

Trump on Monday mentioned a contract to build another section of a border wall in Texas.

“I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile long contract for another large section of the wall in Texas,” he said in a tweet.

Some lawmakers associated the shutdown with Congress’ move to hand over more authorities to the executive branch, The New York Times reported Monday.

“I think that Speaker [Paul] Ryan and House Republicans totally ducked their responsibilities by not allowing an up-and-down vote,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“They’ve contracted out their authority to the president, as opposed to acting like a separate body,” he added.
 

Lawmakers and the White House have advanced a set of bills that would require federal agencies to improve their public websites and digital services in 2019, Nextgov reported Friday. 

President Trump in the past week signed two bills into laws that separately require agencies to improve the accessibility, security and ease of use of public websites and require the Department of Homeland Security to put all its data into a single system to improve access to information.

All agencies have one year to update their websites. One of the new laws also include determining in-person and paper-based services across the government that could be digitized.

House and Senate lawmakers also passed other data-related bills including the SECURE Technology Act that combines three other legislations aimed at strengthening cyber defense of DHS and the federal supply chain. 

The bill would launch DHS’ first enterprise-wide bug bounty program, establish a vulnerability disclosure program with the industry and form a federal council to assess potential cyber risks in the government’s supply chain.

The OPEN Government Data Act also passed both the House and Senate, which would support evidence-based policymaking. 

The bill would require agencies to disclose all non-sensitive data and appoint a chief data officer to oversee the effort.

The George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies, a German-American security training partnership, has released a new batch of 72 professionals who have completed a cybersecurity policy program.

The graduates, who came from 52 countries, trained with a number of U.S. agencies on internet governance, online freedom, international cyber policy, public-private partnerships and other matters related to cyber regulation, the Department of Defense said Friday.

“Our program focuses on areas that are not just within the normal Department of Defense or Ministry of Defense lanes or areas of expertise, but also examines whole-of-government approaches in addressing cyber security issues and challenges,” said Philip Lark, the course director of the center’s Program on Cyber Security Studies.

“We are the only DoD regional center that has the authority to do a transnational program like this with participants from all over the world,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the center’s director.

The Marshall Center has trained security professionals for the past 25 years, and has been providing transnational courses since 2014.

The Government Accountability Office has found that only three out of 11 federal agencies that take part in the Small Business Innovation Research program awarded grants and contracts to small firms owned by venture capital companies, hedge funds and private equity firms in the past four fiscal years.

Those three agencies are the Department of Education‘s Institute for Education Sciences, Department of Energy‘s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services‘ National Institutes of Health, GAO said Friday.

The agencies awarded 62 contracts and grants worth $43.6M combined between FY 2015 and FY 2018, a figure that reflects 0.1 percent to 2.7 percent of the three agencies’ awards.

The congressional watchdog found that NIH is the sole agency that awarded contracts to small businesses owned by multiple investment firms during the period.

The Department of Defense did not award SBIR contracts to small businesses majority-owned by investment firms and funds but sent a “written determination” to some congressional panels and the Small Business Administration for such awards.

GAO said the remaining seven agencies chose not to use the SBIR authority.

“Officials from most of the agencies that elected not to use the authority told GAO they believe that opening their programs to small businesses with majority ownership by multiple investment companies and funds would not substantially contribute to the agencies’ mission,” according to the report.
 

Mark Robbins, acting chairman of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, has been appointed to concurrently serve as general counsel of the Office of Personnel Management, the OPM said Friday.

Robbins served as the agency’s general counsel from 2001 to 2006 and previously held roles at the White House’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and Office of Presidential Personnel.

He also served as general counsel of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and received the U.S. Army’s Commander’s Award for Civilian Service during his tenure as the State Department’s senior rule of law advisor in Babil Province, Iraq.

Prior to his OPM career, Robbins worked as a litigation attorney in Los Angeles, Calif., and legislative assistant to L.A.-area Congress members.

He has been a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration since 2013.

The U.S. Marine Corps is creating a blueprint detailing how the service designs new capabilities for information operations, C4ISRNet reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the service said the Marine Corps Information Environment Blueprint is being designed for the newly-established Marine Expeditionary Force Information Groups.

MIGs are tasked to manage and deliver all information-related capabilities to Marine Corps commanders for cyber, intelligence, electronic warfare and information operations.

A top official for information at Marine Corps said the MCIEE Blueprint will include policies, standards, services, infrastructures, technical designs and architectural elements required to provide capabilities across the enterprise.

“Development of the MCIEE Blueprint is an iterative process focused on the delivery of capabilities defined by and validated against user objectives, functional goals and mission requirements,” the official noted.

The Marine Corps aims to release the final MCIEE in spring 2019 and intends to update the document periodically to add new capabilities.

President Trump has signed a bill into law providing $1.2B in funding for quantum computing research and development over the next five years, GeekWire reported Friday. The National Quantum Initiative Act will support federally-backed research programs exploring quantum information science and the effort to build a quantum-smart workforce.

The law also requires the establishment of a National Quantum Coordination Office and an advisory committee within the White House to manage such projects and address issues in quantum computing. Michael Kratsios, deputy assistant to the president for technology policy, said the initiatives would increase jobs in the U.S., boost economic growth and improve national security.

“We look forward to building upon efforts to support the quantum-smart workforce of the future and engage with government, academic and private-sector leaders to advance QIS,” he said.

The law comes after the National Academies of Science called on the government to develop “post-quantum” encryption protocols to protect commerce and national security.