Connecticut Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) has proposed a bill that seeks to boost the state’s investment in manufacturing jobs within the defense sector.

The Submarine Jobs and Opportunities Building Success Act would allocate $100 million in funds in the next five years to infrastructure development efforts to help address submarine contracts-related requirements, the Connecticut Senate Democrats said Wednesday.

The proposed legislation would also spend $50 million over a decade on workforce programs, high schools and community colleges to help meet the demand for submarine design, repair and maintenance and construction work as part of defense contracts.

“It is an undeniable fact that building submarines is big business for hundreds of Connecticut’s small businesses, and ensuring that our state has a highly skilled and well prepared workforce is critically important in order to meet demand,” Osten said.

She noted that General Dynamics’ Electric Boat subsidiary has approximately 450 Connecticut-based suppliers.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven) said the proposed Submarine JOBS Act comes as Electric Boat prepares to employ up to 15,000 workers in the next 15 years and establish new facilities to support development work on Columbia-class submarines.

The White House is close to finalizing a plan that would direct the Defense Department, diplomats and military attaches to help bring in foreign military sales deals and generate more jobs in the U.S., Reuters reported Monday.

Administration officials told Reuters that President Donald Trump is expected to introduce as soon as February a new initiative that would relax regulations related to U.S. military exports and would cover weapon systems such as fighter jets, warships, drones and artillery.

Under the new “Buy American” plan, embassy personnel would help secure weapons deals for defense contractors through collaboration with foreign counterparts.

The Trump administration’s initiative will also include an update of the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, the report added.

The Surface Navy Association will host a national symposium Crystal City, Virginia, to discuss multiple strategies to address cross-domain warfare challenges.

The U.S. Navy said Monday SNA’s annual symposium, themed “Surface Forces and Cross-Domain Integration,” will feature common procedures and integrated exercises across the air, land, maritime, space and cyber domains.

“We’ll examine the requirements and operations; shipbuilding and maintenance; science and technology; research and development; and the manpower and training issues that impact our force and the Navy, as well as how we integrate with air, surface and expeditionary forces and our international allies and partners,” said Barry McCullough, SNA president and a retired Navy vice admiral.

SNA seeks to provide an opportunity for naval, government and industry representatives to tackle surface community professional and career issues through the symposium.

The Defense Department is modifying common access cards into personnel identity verification cards designed to help validate the identity of cardholders, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

Andy Seymour, DoD’s public key infrastructure manager, told Federal News Radio that DoD is about to issue directives that will give the services 18 months to unlock the PIV authentication certificate on CACs and begin using the new certificate for access.

“Our goal really is for joint interoperability across the entire government space, and not just DoD,” said Seymour.

He added that DoD also aims to optimize the security of contactless communication between CACs and the system as well as add encrypted certificates that will let users execute “tap-and-go” authentication.

Seymour noted that DoD is looking into various options to evolve CACs, including the use of multi-factor authentication tools and identity federation services.