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House Eyes Another Stopgap Bill to Fund Govt Through Jan. 19
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House Eyes Another Stopgap Bill to Fund Govt Through Jan. 19


House Eyes Another Stopgap Bill to Fund Govt Through Jan. 19House lawmakers plan to pass another continuing resolution Thursday in an effort to avoid a government shutdown and fund federal agencies through Jan. 19, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Congress passed Dec. 7 a two-week CR that is set to expire Friday.

The four-week stopgap bill would include a provisional fix to the Children’s Health Insurance Program to address declining funds and extend through Jan. 19 a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that approaches expiration on Dec. 31.

Some lawmakers said they expect the House to vote on a proposed bill that would authorize $81 billion in hurricane and wildfire relief funds as a separate package.

The House Rules Committee is set to meet Thursday morning to prepare the short-term funding measure for a floor vote.

Politico also reported that some Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee expressed objections to the proposed CR without full-year funding for the Defense Department at a closed-door conference meeting.

Some members said they voted for the two-week CR after House leaders said they would advance a yearlong spending measure for DoD before the Friday deadline.

Republican leaders told the conference that they do not have 217 votes to clear the original DoD spending plan under the two-week stopgap bill.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said at the conference that Defense Secretary James Mattis had given his consent to the proposed CR, the report added.

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GAO: DoD’s Contract Awards to Minority-, Women-Owned Businesses Hit $230B in FY 2010-2016
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GAO: DoD’s Contract Awards to Minority-, Women-Owned Businesses Hit $230B in FY 2010-2016


GAO: DoD’s Contract Awards to Minority-, Women-Owned Businesses Hit $230B in FY 2010-2016The Government Accountability Office has found that the Defense Department awarded approximately 444,500 contracts valued at more than $230 billion to women- and minority-owned businesses between fiscal years 2010 and 2016.

GAO said in a report published Monday fixed-price contracts for goods and services represented at least 80 percent, or approximately $184 billion, of the total obligated funds over the six-year period.

The study showed that DoD’s spending on contracts awarded to such businesses dropped by 12 percent from FY 2010 to FY 2016.

The Pentagon awarded approximately $14 billion in technical and professional engineering contracts and over $3 billion worth of software contracts to minority- and women-owned companies during the period, according to the report.

GAO used data from the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation platform to examine the department’s acquisition trends in compliance with a provision of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

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Report: Army Seeks Non-GPS PNT Tech for Ground Vehicles
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Report: Army Seeks Non-GPS PNT Tech for Ground Vehicles


Report: Army Seeks Non-GPS PNT Tech for Ground VehiclesThe U.S. Army is looking for new technologies that can help ground vehicles relay coordinates in any weather and terrain without the need for a global positioning system link, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

The service branch released a request for information in December to collect public input on available non-GPS systems that can offer positioning, navigation and timing capacities for Army ground vehicles.

The Army Rapid Capabilities Office and the Special Operations Command look to conduct a demonstration of the emerging industry-built PNT systems that can help meet requirements for the service branch’s ground vehicles in March.

“For industry, this is one of our opportunities to allow them to demonstrate their wares and then allow it to potentially lead to additional demonstration of prototyping and, ultimately … may lead to some limited production opportunities,” said Doug Wiltsie, director of the Rapid Capabilities Office.

“The technologies will be used to go over long distances, multiple environments … so that we can get an understanding of their capabilities and their limitations.”

The service branch will evaluate the technologies’ capacities under various weather conditions during an exhibition at Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations in Indiana.

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DOE to Fund Eight New Predictive Modeling Projects for Solar Generation
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DOE to Fund Eight New Predictive Modeling Projects for Solar Generation


DOE to Fund Eight New Predictive Modeling Projects for Solar GenerationThe Department of Energy has announced it will obligate $12 million to fund eight new projects that seek to generate new findings on predictive modeling for solar generation.

The Solar Forecasting 2 effort brings together government labs, industry and academe in aims to increase solar generation forecast accuracy and improve the management and reliability of the solar energy grid, the DOE said Tuesday.

Four of the projects will focus on solar generation prediction, while three others will go over the integration of grid planning technologies and operating systems for advanced forecasting.

Another project will test a framework designed to guide the evaluation of model performance through the use of standards and metrics.

The three integration projects will be conducted in partnership with the California Independent System Operator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas; while the framework study project will be executed at the University of Arizona.

Funds in the amount of $2.6 million from the private sector will be added to the DOE’s contribution, totaling to an amount of more than $14.6 million.

The full list of awarding under the effort can be found here.

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DoD to Launch New Military Retirement System on Jan. 1
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DoD to Launch New Military Retirement System on Jan. 1


DoD to Launch New Military Retirement System on Jan. 1The Defense Department will implement a new military retirement system on Jan. 1 in an effort to boost its capacity to recruit and retain service members.

DoD said Tuesday the new retirement program called Uniformed Services Blended Retirement System will combine aspects of the traditional pension system with a new process that will automatically allocate matching contributions through the Thrift Savings Plan.

Current service members may choose to remain in the legacy retirement system or move to BRS from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018.

DoD offers training and informational tools to help service members make their decision, including the BRS Opt-In Course, BRS Comparison Calculator and other online materials.

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Army Continues Push to Consolidate Mission Command Software into Unitary Baseline
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Army Continues Push to Consolidate Mission Command Software into Unitary Baseline


Army Continues Push to Consolidate Mission Command Software into Unitary BaselineThe U.S. Army has initiated mission command network development efforts in a push to comply with a service branch-wide directive to consolidate mission command software of more than 400 tactical units into a unitary baseline.

The service branch said Tuesday the Army operations, plans and training unit’s directive aims to consolidate mission command network software and hardware throughout the military branch as well as provide the National Guard with updated equipment to support the software fielding mission.

The Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical also began to mobilize in an effort to help field 290 units throughout the remainder of the Army’s next fiscal year.

Rodney Malone, a fielding manager with the Army Project Manager Mission Command, said the service branch has committed to ensure mission training centers receive the most recent software baseline for future operator and sustainment training missions.

The service branch noted a universal baseline will support the release of new software, promote interoperability within the Army as well as lay the foundations for the future Command Post Computing Environment slated to be released in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019.

The Army added it also urged proper representatives from each of the tactical units to attend information briefs, synchronization conferences and in-process review calls to help prepare for commence scheduling, fielding and training activities.

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DISA’s Alfred Rivera to Leave Federal Govt After 35-Year Career
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DISA’s Alfred Rivera to Leave Federal Govt After 35-Year Career


DISA's Alfred Rivera to Leave Federal Govt After 35-Year Career
Alfred Rivera

Alfred Rivera, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency‘s Development and Business Center, will retire in January after 35 years of federal government service.

DISA said Tuesday Rivera will leave his post following a ceremony scheduled to take place Jan. 4 at the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Rivera worked for 25 years at DISA, including roles as strategic relations executive, principal director for enterprise services, computing services director and chief technology officer for the legacy computing services organization.

He joined the agency in 1992 as a systems engineer.

Rivera received the 2006 Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Service and the 2009 Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Service for his efforts to transform data processing and computing services for U.S. warfighters.

He intends to work with animal rescue centers and become a consultant after his retirement.

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Report: US Aims to Facilitate Military Drone Exports Via Proposed Arms Control Treaty Amendment
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Report: US Aims to Facilitate Military Drone Exports Via Proposed Arms Control Treaty Amendment


Report: US Aims to Facilitate Military Drone Exports Via Proposed Arms Control Treaty AmendmentThe U.S. government plans to propose a change to an arms control agreement in an effort to facilitate exports of unmanned aerial vehicles designed for military use, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Sources said U.S. officials released a white paper about the proposed amendment to the Missile Technology Control Regime during a plenary session held in October.

MTCR is a treaty among 35 countries that sets rules on missile and UAV exports and subjects to a “presumption of denial” “category-1” platforms with a payload capacity of 500 kilograms at a distance of least 300 kilometers.

Under the proposed MTCR amendment, any drone that operates under 650 kilometers per hour would be classified as “category-2” and would be reviewed for approval on an individual basis.

The reclassification of drones to category-2 would enable the U.S. to sell the UAVs to other countries through direct commercial sales or foreign military sales agreements, the report added.

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Trump Administration Includes Space Commerce Among National Security Priorities
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Trump Administration Includes Space Commerce Among National Security Priorities


Trump Administration Includes Space Commerce Among National Security PrioritiesThe Trump administration seeks to reform space industry regulations as part of the federal government’s 2017 National Security Strategy in a push to attract investments and encourage innovations in the private sector, Space News reported Monday.

The government wants to partner with companies to increase the resiliency of space architectures and drive human exploration missions.

President Donald Trump on Monday provided details of his national security strategy that covers military power, homeland defense, trade policy, border security and economic strength.

Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the National Space Council, will lead efforts to create and update policies as well as evaluate the country’s long-term space goals and strategies.

Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, urged the U.S. government and private sector to utilize legal and diplomatic means to establish a stable space environment for commercial and government activities.

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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Gets 15-Year Lease for Consolidated DC Headquarters
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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Gets 15-Year Lease for Consolidated DC Headquarters


Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Gets 15-Year Lease for Consolidated DC HeadquartersThe General Services Administration has signed a 15-year lease agreement for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to occupy a new headquarters located in Washington, D.C.

PBGC will consolidate its HQ from three leased sites into a 431,785-square-foot facility at 445 12 Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., GSA said Tuesday.

“The new lease will reduce PBGC’s real estate footprint and their utilization rate, and save the American taxpayer approximately $4.5 million in annual leased cost avoidance,” said Mary Gibert, regional commissioner for the National Capital Region of GSA’s Public Buildings Service.

GSA estimates that PBGC will save $4.5 million in annual lease cost and reduce the latter’s footprint by 35,375 rentable square feet through the consolidated HQ.

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