House lawmakers have called on the Senate to speed up the confirmation of Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Oklahoma) for the NASA administrator role in light of Robert Lightfoot’s decision to retire as the agency’s acting chief by the end of April.

Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House space subcommittee, and several fellow lawmakers sent a joint letter Monday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) to express support for Bridenstine’s nomination.

The legislators told the Senate leaders that NASA needs to have a Senate-confirmed administrator in place to decide on several space exploration programs such as the future of the International Space Station, development of space architecture to support lunar and Mars missions and the launch of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft.

The lawmakers also cited Bridenstine’s leadership experience and technical capacity as well as his naval aviation career and contributions to the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act and the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act as a House space subpanel member.

The White House has released President Donald Trump’s management agenda that aims to modernize the federal government through mission, delivery of public services and stewardship of taxpayer funds, Nextgov reported Tuesday.

The president’s management agenda unveiled Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri, will work to achieve those goals through three drivers of transformation that include information technology modernization efforts; data, accountability and transparency programs; and the need to align the federal workforce with evolving mission requirements.

Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, told the publication the White House Office of American Innovation will continue to serve as a “catalytic engine” on federal IT modernization initiatives and work with OMB on such efforts.

“But we are definitely, with the launch of the president’s management agenda and the launch of the Technology Modernization Fund and the centers of excellence, we’re in the execution phase,” Weichert said.

“This is a journey we will be on and we will be working as a team across the executive branch,” she added.

The agenda noted that that administration seeks to improve the federal government’s information systems to facilitate the delivery of public services.

Such a goal calls for the adoption of cloud-based email and collaboration tools to enhance citizen-facing services, deployment of cybersecurity platforms to address cyber risks and development of a modern IT workforce, according to the document.

Chris Liddell, a member of the White House Office of American Innovation, will serve as deputy to John Kelly, the administration’s chief of staff, and oversee policy coordination efforts, CNBC reported Monday.

“Chris is widely respected across the administration and is highly qualified to oversee and coordinate our policy process,” Kelly said in a statement.

Liddell, who also serves as director of strategic initiatives at the White House, will continue to serve as part of the innovation office and help manage the policy process as the organization works to advance government information technology modernization efforts and promote apprenticeships.

He served as chief financial officer at General Motors, Microsoft and International Paper before he joined the Trump administration and previously considered for the National Economic Council director post, the report added.

Rasu Shrestha, chief innovation officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has been selected to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs‘s Open Application Programming Interface pledge.

He will oversee the department’s efforts to collaborate with providers to accelerate the mapping pace of healthcare data to industry standards such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard, VA said Monday.

VA Secretary David Shulkin announced the API initiative at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference.

Eleven providers have signed up to support the program during the HIMSS event and several other institutions have expressed interest to join the pledge, the department noted.

VA has created a Lighthouse Lab open API for developers to produce web and mobile healthcare information technology applications for military veterans.

The department also seeks to facilitate electronic health record interoperability, as well as the design, test and enactment of FHIR API implementation guidelines for the Argonaut Project.

Pledge participants will meet for an initial roundtable discussion in April to set the collaborative approach with the VA and standards community for the application of existing Argonaut implementation guides.