Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., will assume leadership of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee next month following the recent appointment of Robert Wilkie as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, MilitaryTimes.com reported Tuesday.

During an interview with Military Times, Takano said he aims to provide “more vigorous oversight” on the VA and foster bipartisanship as the House committee’s new chairman. His focus is on monitoring the progress of efforts such as veteran suicide prevention programs, GI Bill payouts, anti-homelessness initiatives and a new electronic system for medical records. Takano’s other goals include receiving funding for facility upgrades, increasing staff at VA hospitals and improving access to healthcare.

“Solving staffing problems at VA is also going to mean solving the medical workforce development issues for the country,” he said.

During a hearing with Wilkie held last December, Takano noted that the department is “slow-walking” efforts to fill over 41K vacant VA positions. Wilkie previously announced that a new community care system will be detailed to lawmakers in early 2019.

The delivery of the first Boeing-built KC-46 tanker aircraft to the U.S. Air Force was postponed following the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, Defense News reported Monday.

A source said the service branch was scheduled to receive the first tanker on Monday but leadership changes at DoD stalled the decision on KC-46.

“KC-46 remains a top priority and we look forward to delivering tanker aircraft in partnership with the Air Force,” said Kelly Kaplan, a spokeswoman for Boeing, told the publication in a statement.

The report noted the decision on the tanker delivery may fall to Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Pentagon, or Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson since Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan is a former executive at Boeing.

Mattis announced that he would leave his post by the end of February but President Donald Trump tapped Shanahan days after to serve as acting DoD secretary starting Jan. 1.

President Donald Trump on Friday released an executive order that imposes a freeze on the salary of federal employees, CNN reported Wednesday.

The policy cancels a proposed 2.1 percent salary raise and “locality pay increase,” which are scheduled to take effect in January.

The report said approximately 420K federal personnel go to work without pay and about 380K employees have been furloughed due to a partial government shutdown.

The Washington Post reported that the new policy does not cover military personnel, who are set to get a 2.6 percent salary increase this year.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he plans to propose a measure that would push for the pay increase once the new Congress holds its first meeting on Thursday.

House Democrats are set to assume control of the lower chamber on Thursday and are likely to support the pay raise, the report added.
 

House Democrats have proposed a package of six appropriations bills to put an end to a partial government shutdown that started on Dec. 22, CNBC reported Monday.

They also introduced a separate continuing resolution that would fund that Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8.

House Democrats are expected to vote on the bills once they assume control of the lower chamber beginning Thursday, Jan. 3.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), incoming chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the measure does not cover border wall funding and is similar to bills that cleared the Senate with bipartisan support.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement published Monday the legislation aims to resume government services and allow personnel to receive their paychecks.

“It would be the height of irresponsibility and political cynicism for Senate Republicans to now reject the same legislation they have already supported,” Pelosi and Schumer added.
 

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.