Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has confirmed the addition of eight members to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Nielsen said in a statement published Tuesday the new HASC members will guide the council in meeting its mission of addressing emerging threats to homeland security.

The eight new members are:\n

• Carol DiBattiste, general counsel and chief compliance, privacy and people officer at comScore
• Cathy Lanier,  former chief of police with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department
• Chad Sweet, co-founder and CEO of the The Chertoff Group
• Frank Cilluffo, director of the McCrary Institute for Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection at Auburn University
• Jayson Ahern, principal and head of security services practice at The Chertoff Group
• Mark Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County, Ariz.
• Stewart Baker, partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson
• Wendy Smith-Reeve, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs

\nThe HASC provides the DHS secretary with independent, informed recommendations and advice to resolve various homeland security issues.

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency has said that China and the United States becoming enemies is “not a foregone conclusion,” even though the two countries are currently competitors, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr. said during a recent discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., that although China has been busy building up its military capabilities, the Asian country’s long-term goal — whether it be global hegemony or simply the protection of national interests — remains unclear.

Ashley also observed that China has been upgrading its armed forces by studying the United States since Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s, and by observing U.S. military activities since the September 11 attacks.

“They’ve watched us over the course of the last couple of decades as they have grown capability… And in many ways, they’ve mirrored some of the things we’ve done,” the DIA chief said.

However, the general pointed out that military lethality is not just a function of size and equipment.

Emphasizing the importance of experience, Ashley noted that the Chinese have not engaged in warfare for nearly four decades.

The U.S. Air Force‘s Program Executive Office Battle Management has been redesignated to continue operations as PEO Digital at Hanscom Air Force Base.

The renamed and redesignated PEO will work to implement acquisition processes for Agile DevOps software across the service branch, Air Force Materiel Command said Monday.

Steven Wert, previously Hanscom’s PEO for battle management, will lead PEO Digital.

PEO Digital will build on and expand Project Kessel Run, which worked to develop technologies for streamlining Air Force combat management and tasking processes.

“We established a directorate-wide goal last summer to challenge the process and innovate, and now as PEO Digital, we have the charge to continue those efforts and help apply them throughout the Air Force,” said Wert.

The PEO will retain the battle management portfolio, and expand to design and field software products, automate cybersecurity processes, operate with cloud infrastructure and integrate testing activities.

The office’s corresponding organization will be renamed as the Digital Directorate and resume work under the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

President Trump has introduced a strategy that aims to help the federal government respond to biological threats and boost the U.S. biodefense enterprise.

Trump noted in his recently signed National Security Presidential Memorandum that secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee the implementation of the National Biodefense Strategy, the White House said Tuesday.

The NSPM also authorizes the establishment of a cabinet-level biodefense steering committee that will deal with issues on bioterrorism and outbreaks of deadly diseases.

The president additionally assigned John Bolton, U.S. national security advisor, to review biological threats and focus on biodefense actions annually to allow the federal government to prepare and respond to biological incidents.

Trump said his administration will evaluate the biodefense needs of the U.S., as well as regularly monitor the implementation of the National Biodefense Strategy to leverage the government’s biodefense resources and actions.

The plan is based on lessons learned from previous incidents such as the 2001 anthrax attacks, the 2009 influenza pandemic and 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has said the service plans to increase the total number of operational squadrons to 386 and add 40K more personnel by 2030 to counter potential military threats posed by Russia and China, Reuters reported Monday.

That figure represents a 24 percent increase from the service’s 312 squadrons.

Wilson told reporters Monday that the service would not be able to maintain its military edge in the next decade at its current size.

“The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do,” she added.

Wilson said she expects the service’s plan to establish a new “space force” to cost approximately $13B in the next five years, according to a report by Defense News.

The report said the service would need to allocate approximately $7.2B for space force components, $2.2B for headquarters elements, $1.8B for “direct reporting units,” $595M to hire more personnel for the proposed space command and $1M to establish the new space-focused combatant command in the next five years.

“To stand up a department that’s responsible for recruiting and training and planning and programming and budgeting and all of the leadership requirements that a department has, it’s a major undertaking,” Wilson said.
 

The General Services Administration plans to incorporate a new special item number for automated contact center platforms and services into the Information Technology Schedule 70 contract vehicle by the start of the government’s fiscal year 2019, Nextgov reported Monday.

The report said GSA will introduce SIN 132-20 in an effort to help federal customers explore and procure commercial automation technology platforms such as voice and speech recognition, text-to-speech, artificial intelligence and chatbots.

According to the agency, the new subcategory is intended to replace the USA Contact indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract.

GSA’s IT Schedule 70 program uses ordering procedures designed to accelerate the procurement lead time by up to 50 percent compared with that of the open market.

The new SIN is scheduled for an Oct. 1 rollout and the agency plans to hold a webinar on Friday to discuss the topic.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended to the Defense Department to implement a common measure when evaluating the performance of health care providers working for the Military Health System.

GAO said in a report published Monday there is also a need for DoD to create a wider range of classifications to measure quality of service and medical conditions that can be assessed, as the department’s existing measures only cover a few.

The DoD’s assistant secretary for health affairs is also directed to establish performance standards that align with MHS’ practices for direct care and take necessary steps to make providers meet those standards.

GAO recently discovered that the DoD fails to employ the following practices: employ a standard measure when assessing all health care providers and use methods covering a wide range of medical conditions when considering health care providers’ performance.