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House Committee OKs Space Exploration, Innovation Corps Program Expansion Bills
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House Committee OKs Space Exploration, Innovation Corps Program Expansion Bills


House Committee OKs Space Exploration, Innovation Corps Program Expansion BillsThe House Science, Space and Technology Committee has unanimously passed two bills to increase U.S. space exploration technology development efforts and a third bill to expand the National Science Foundation’s entrepreneurial training program.

The American Leadership in Space Technology and Advanced Rocketry Act, introduced by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama), would designate Marshall Space Flight Center as NASA‘s primary development center for rocket propulsion, the committee said Thursday.

The Commercial Space Support Vehicle Act, introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Florida), would establish processes to license and authorize space support vehicles.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois) introduced the Innovators to Entrepreneurs Act to add a course for commercialization-ready innovation research entities under NSF’s Innovation Corps program.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) chairs the SST committee that approved all three bills.

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Report: Omnibus Bill Lacks Funding for Revised FBI HQ Consolidation Plan
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Report: Omnibus Bill Lacks Funding for Revised FBI HQ Consolidation Plan


Report: Omnibus Bill Lacks Funding for Revised FBI HQ Consolidation PlanA $1.3 billion omnibus spending measure that would fund government operations through the end of September does not authorize any budget to support the General Services Administration’s new plan to establish a new FBI headquarters, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

The budget package is now headed to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature following its passage by Congress.

“The Act does not include funding for the revised headquarters consolidation plan released on February 12, 2018, because many questions regarding the new plan remain unanswered, including the revision of longstanding security requirements and changes to headquarters capacity in the national capital region,” lawmakers wrote in an explanation of the spending package.

“Until these concerns are addressed and the appropriate authorizing committees approve a prospectus, the committees are reluctant to appropriate additional funds for this activity,” they added.

Lawmakers’ explanation came a week after GSA Inspector General Carol Ochoa wrote a letter to Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Virginia) saying her office will review the agency’s decision to change its plan for the FBI headquarters consolidation project.

GSA plans to demolish the J. Edgar Hoover building and replace it with a new FBI headquarters facility under the revised strategy.

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NOAA Appoints Kenneth Graham to Lead National Hurricane Center
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NOAA Appoints Kenneth Graham to Lead National Hurricane Center


NOAA Appoints Kenneth Graham to Lead National Hurricane Center
Kenneth Graham

Kenneth Graham, a 24-year veteran of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been appointed director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida effective April 1.

He succeeds Ed Rappaport, who has led the center on an interim basis since Rick Knabb stepped down in May last year, NOAA said Thursday.

Graham has served as the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service’s New Orleans/Baton Rouge forecast office since 2008 and previously worked as systems operations division chief at NWS Southern Region headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

He also held the position of meteorological service chief at NWS HQ in Silver Spring, Maryland, and meteorologist-in-charge at forecast offices in Alabama and Texas.

Before he joined NOAA, Graham was a broadcast meteorologist for the WCBI-TV station in Mississippi.

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Kirstjen Nielsen: Lack of US Election Systems Backup Poses National Security Risk
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Kirstjen Nielsen: Lack of US Election Systems Backup Poses National Security Risk


Kirstjen Nielsen: Lack of US Election Systems Backup Poses National Security Risk
Kirstjen Nielsen

Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said that the lack of a mechanism to audit election results in certain U.S. states poses a “national security concern,” Reuters reported Wednesday.

Nielsen, an inductee into the 2018 Wash100, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that states should use paper ballot backups for electronic voting systems to prevent hackers from tampering with election results.

New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina do not have verifiable paper ballot backup in their voting systems, but some plan to acquire such platforms to support audits.

Eight other states have electoral districts that lack paper backups.

Nielsen appeared before the committee alongside former DHS chief Jeh Johnson to describe DHS’ efforts to boost election systems security following the 2016 presidential election.

Nielsen and Johnson believe high-level Russian leaders were involved in an attempt to interfere with the 2016 election.

The incumbent DHS secretary said the department worked to identify the right state election authorities to contact regarding threat information sharing — a capacity that DHS did not have in 2016.

Nielsen added that more than half of U.S. states sought DHS’ cyber scanning services to identify potential vulnerabilities.

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House Bill Would Establish AI National Security Commission
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House Bill Would Establish AI National Security Commission


House Bill Would Establish AI National Security CommissionRep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) has introduced a bill that would establish an independent commission to review artificial intelligence technology advancements and identify the country’s AI needs.

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Act of 2018 would also require the future group to recommend strategies for the White House and Congress to facilitate AI adoption in the federal government, the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.

“AI has already produced many things in use today, including web search, object recognition in photos or videos, prediction models, self-driving cars, and automated robotics,” said Stefanik.

“It is critical to our national security but also to the development of our broader economy that the United States becomes the global leader in further developing this cutting edge technology,” she added.

The commission would provide AI-focused recommendations encompassing competitiveness, technological advantage, cooperation, research investment, workforce and education, international law and data privacy.

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NIST Unveils Draft Guide on ‘Cyber Resilient’ Systems Development
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NIST Unveils Draft Guide on ‘Cyber Resilient’ Systems Development


NIST Unveils Draft Guide on 'Cyber Resilient' Systems DevelopmentThe National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a draft guide on how to achieve cyber resiliency across information technology systems.

NIST said Wednesday the guideline titled “Systems Security Engineering: Cyber Resiliency Considerations for the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems” intends to address cyber resiliency issues relevant to organizations that are developing new IT systems as well as entities that are operating legacy IT platforms.

The document is the first in a series of publications that NIST developed to support the agency’s flagship systems security engineering guideline called “Systems Security Engineering: Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems.”

Cyber resilient systems feature built-in security safeguards in the system architecture and design, NIST noted.

Those platforms demonstrate the capacity to withstand cyber attacks and continue to operate in a compromised state.

The draft guide includes factors that organizations should consider to achieve cyber resiliency with their existing and future IT products, systems and services.

The guideline is also designed to inform investment decisions related to cyber resiliency.

NIST will accept feedback on the draft guide until May 18.

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FedRAMP Issues 3 New Documents on Continuous Monitoring Process
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FedRAMP Issues 3 New Documents on Continuous Monitoring Process


FedRAMP Issues 3 New Documents on Continuous Monitoring ProcessThe Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has released three new documents to clarify its process for continuously monitoring FedRAMP-authorized cloud service providers.

FedRAMP said Tuesday the new continuous monitoring documents include a draft of the “Automated Vulnerability Risk Adjustment Framework Guidance,” which is intended to help CSPs build and deploy an automated vulnerability risk adjustment tool for weaknesses detected by vulnerability scanners.

The draft guide is meant to support CSPs’ efforts to maintain or boost security as well as lessen the level of effort for scanner-related risk reductions.

FedRAMP also responded to requests from cloud companies that want to scan samples of system components rather than the entire system with a document titled “Guide for Determining Eligibility and Requirements for the Use of Sampling for Vulnerability Scans.”

CSPs can use the document as a guide on evaluating representative system components rather than scanning all components.

The third document named “Vulnerability Scanning Requirements” provides a known vulnerability severity scoring framework that supports the creation and use of an automated, Common Vulnerability Scoring System-based risk adjustment tool for vulnerabilities identified by vulnerability scanning systems.

The new documents add to a set of guides that FedRAMP issued in Jan. 31 to streamline and optimize the continuous monitoring process.

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Michael Griffin: Directed Energy Weapon Systems Needed Amid Superpower Competition
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Michael Griffin: Directed Energy Weapon Systems Needed Amid Superpower Competition


Michael Griffin: Directed Energy Weapon Systems Needed Amid Superpower Competition
Michael Griffin

Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, has said the U.S. government and industry should advance the development of directed energy weapons amid the emergence of superpower competition with countries such as Russia and China, DoD News reported Wednesday.

“We have to have the technological leverage,” Griffin said Wednesday at the 2018 Directed Energy Summit in Washington.

“That realization was responsible for the creation of my office, to elevate the role of technology maturation and deployment and I believe it is responsible for the renewed interest in directed energy weapons,” he added.

He said maritime, ground, space and air domains are the four venues where directed energy weapon systems can be applied and such venues should require the warfighting tactics, logistics requirements, manpower support and basing strategies to be different.

“I would urge us not to think that one size fits all,” noted Griffin, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

“I would urge us to keep a lot of arrows in our quiver as we go forward figuring out how we’re going to translate directed energy technologies into warfighting systems that are going to defend this country and our allies.”

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Gen. John Hyten: DoD Leadership Understands Need for Faster Space Procurement Process
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Gen. John Hyten: DoD Leadership Understands Need for Faster Space Procurement Process


Gen. John Hyten: DoD Leadership Understands Need for Faster Space Procurement Process
John Hyten

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, told SpaceNews in an interview posted Wednesday he believes Defense Department leaders such as Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan understand the need to accelerate the space procurement process.

Hyten and Griffin are both 2018 Wash100 recipients.

Hyten said he thinks the U.S. military should aim for space launch costs below $100 million and develop satellites within three to five years in order to keep its competitive edge in space.

The military should pursue the development of smaller satellites that could be replaced immediately in the event of an attack and introduce changes to the procurement of ground-based terminals and computers used to control satellites, he noted.

“We have to get to modular spacecraft where we can take existing government or commercial buses and integrate new payloads,” he added.

Hyten said he has initiated talks with Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and head of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, about the need to address issues with the requirements definition process that appears to slow down the deployment of new systems.

Selva “is now putting mandates on the bureaucracy to go fast… The key is to focus on capabilities,” Hyten added.

DoD to Get $654.6B Under $1.3T Omnibus Spending Bill
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DoD to Get $654.6B Under $1.3T Omnibus Spending Bill


DoD to Get $654.6B Under $1.3T Omnibus Spending BillCongressional leaders have introduced an omnibus bill that would authorize $1.3 trillion to fund government operations through the end of fiscal 2018, Defense News reported Thursday.

The omnibus package would allocate $654.6 billion in funds for the Defense Department, including a base budget of $589.5 billion and overseas contingency operations funds worth $65.2 billion.

The defense appropriations bill would earmark $137.7 billion in funds for military personnel and pay, including a 2.4 percent salary increase for warfighters.

The proposed legislation would authorize $238 billion for operation and maintenance accounts, $89.2 billion for research and development of defense technology platforms and $34.4 billion for defense health and military family programs.

DoD’s equipment procurement initiatives would get $144.3 billion in funds under the proposed bill, according to the measure’s summary.

The legislation’s equipment acquisition section includes $23.8 billion for the procurement of 14 Navy ships; $10.2 billion for 90 F-35 fighter jets; $9.5 billion for the Missile Defense Agency; $1.8 billion for the purchase of 24 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft; $1.4 billion for three Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles; $1.1 billion for the acquisition of 56 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters; and $1.1 billion to support upgrades of 85 Abrams tanks.

The omnibus bill would set aside $47.8 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, $4 billion to address the opioid crisis, $21 billion for infrastructure projects and $2.3 billion for school safety efforts.

House and Senate lawmakers need to pass the spending package before the current continuing resolution expires Friday in order to avert a government shutdown.

 

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