Federal officials said the White House is likely to establish its proposed government modernization research center in 2019, with funding to be released in the current fiscal year to support the project, Nextgov reported Thursday.

The Trump administration aims for the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center to increase partnerships between the government, the industry and academia to accelerate deployment of new technologies and services. White House officials said they’re exploring ways to incentivize industry and academic experts to help establish the GEAR Center. 

“We want to do this quickly. We want to seed a center and start work in 2019,” said Margaret Weichert, deputy director of Office of Management and Budget. “I believe we can actually stand something up and actually deliver benefits in 2019 to showcase that there’s a way forward, in part because there are things like this that already exist,” she added. 

Weichert noted initial work at the center would focus on workforce reskilling, data management and information technology modernization within the government. However, the White House has yet to finalize the structure of the GEAR Center, whether it will run as a centralized, government-run enterprise or a dispersed collection of industry and academic experts with limited presence from federal leaders.

Senate Democrats introduced a bill to increase security for citizens’ personal data on public websites and apps.

Sen. Brian Schatz, top Democrat on the Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet subcommittee, led the proposal of the Data Care Act that would require online providers to improve security of personal information and prevent misuse of user data, according to a statement posted Wednesday. 

“By establishing a special fiduciary relationship between online providers and users, companies that use or sell people’s data will be held responsible for keeping consumers safe from harm, data breaches and unnecessary invasions of privacy,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who cosponsored the legislation. 

She added the bill would enable the Federal Trade Commission to collaborate with the U.S. Attorney General “to ensure service providers strengthen personal data protections and protect the security of American consumers’ sensitive personal data.”

Under the Data Care Act, service providers will be required to:

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• Reasonably secure individual identifying data and promptly inform users of data breaches that involve sensitive information
• Avoid using individual identifying data in ways that harm users
• Ensure that the duties of care and loyalty extend to third parties when disclosing, selling or sharing individual identifying data
• Follow federal and state enforcement as a violation of the duties will be treated as a violation of an FTC rule with first fine authority
• Follow FTC’s rule-making authority

The U.S. Navy will christen the future USS St. Louis built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine on Saturday at the company’s Marinette, Wis. facility, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

The Freedom-variant littoral combat ship can operate in open-ocean and near-shore environments and is designed to thwart threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft. The USS St. Louis is designated as LCS 19 and named after Missouri’s major port city located along the Mississippi River. In May 2017, a Lockheed Martin-led industry team laid the keel for the vessel at Marinette Marine’s location in Wisconsin.

Sen. Roy Blunt and Barbara Taylor, wife of Enterprise Holdings Chairman Andy Taylor will attend the christening. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been tasked with providing recommendations to the Pentagon for establishing a proposed agency that would lead efforts to build and acquire space technologies for the military, Space News reported Thursday.

DARPA will study the process and approach for the Space Development Agency following a directive by Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin. In a memo sent to top defense officials, Griffin said he expects DARPA to complete the study in 45 to 60 days and focus on the requirements for a low-earth orbit communications transport layer and on the space capabilities outlined in the Department of Defense’s Space Vision.

The main tasks of the Space Development Agency include:

• Persistent global surveillance for advanced missile targeting
• Indications, warning, targeting and tracking for defense against advanced missile threats
• Alternate positioning, navigation and timing for a GPS-denied environment
• Global and near-real time space situational awareness
• Development of deterrent capability
• Responsive, resilient, common ground-based space support infrastructures
• Cross-domain, networked, node-independent battle management command, control and communications, including nuclear command, control and communications
• Highly-scaled, low-latency, persistent, artificial intelligence-enabled global surveillance

Fred Kennedy, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, will lead the study.

McAleese & Associates reports that public shipyards are all jockeying for public shipyard recapitalization funding heading into 2019.

During the recent “Navy/USMC Readiness” hearing, Richard Spencer, secretary of the U.S. Navy, assured lawmakers the agency is drafting its master plan to modernize its public shipyards. A report from the Department of Defense states the plan could cost as much as $20B over 20 years.

The Navy delivered its “Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan” to Congress in September, which focuses on facility layout and optimization, shipyard drydock recapitalization and equipment modernization. Sen. Mazie Hirono D-HI, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen D-N.H., have been eager to receive immediate funding for the Pearl Harbor and Portsmouth shipyards, but Sen. Angus King ,I-Maine, is seeking a split-frigate-award. King wants to avoid a major production spike because it could create further problems with maintenance-cycles.

In addition to improving physical infrastructure at their shipyards, Spencer clarified that other improvements have being made. In a statement from the hearing, improving sailor training has become a top priority and seen great progress.

“Today’s naval shipyard training and development is a combination of class room, learning center development (hands-on in safe to learn environments) and on-the-job experience, Spenser said. “In previous years, training could take up to 4 years, as the majority of the training and development was shadowing an experienced mechanic while ‘on-the-job.’ Naval shipyards have now reduced the time it takes to train and develop a worker by a least 50%.”

Despite the immediate impact of public shipyard recapitalization, it’ll take at least two years for significant changes to become clear. During the hearing, Spencer insisted the 2020 sequestration would be a crime after stopping all the progress the U.S. Navy made to modernize its shipyards.

McAleese & Associates reports Congress allowing the upcoming 2020-2021 sequester to return would be ill-advised, according to expert remarks made during the “Navy/USMC Readiness” Hearing in Washington, D.C.
 
Richard Spencer, secretary of the U.S. Navy, discussed the urgency of avoiding a 2020 sequester and conveyed how devastating it would be for the branch. According to the hearing’s transcript, Spencer suggested the sequester could result in a $26B loss in funding, hindering readiness and lethality heading into 2019.
 
Pointing to advancements in these areas, Spencer insisted strides have been made by enhancing private-public partnerships and making calculated investments in weapons platforms and munitions. According to him, the Navy’s existing fleet readiness has been improving due to an additional $1.1B in funding for ship maintenance, an increase from $8.7B to $9.8B during fiscal years 2017 to 2019.
 
“This additional funding enables ships to begin deployment training on time with improved material condition and modernized combat, communications and engineering systems,” said Spencer. “We have partnered with our shipyards, public and private, to improve efficiency, reducing the maintenance backlog and increasing productivity vital for future naval growth.”
 
Spencer argued that every dollar must generate a return of lethality and consistent funding is necessary to fix these problems. He urged that any break in funding or a significant cut resulting from the 2020 sequester would have significant consequences on the Navy’s readiness.
 
John Pendleton, director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, believes the readiness problem is quite complex because the Navy can’t bring forces home to reset. Navy ships require rotational-forward presence. As a result, Pendleton argued that shipboard training standards are being waved at an alarming rate because the Navy trains ship crews before they deploy. Navy ships have been left without enough sailors to handle the workload. Due to ship and submarine depot maintenance delays, 27,000 days have been lost since 2012, added Pendleton.