Sonny Bhagowalia, former chief information officer of the Treasury Department, has joined the Customs and Border Protection as deputy assistant commissioner at the agency’s information technology office, Federal Times reported Saturday.

In his new role, Bhagowalia will lead CBP’s cybersecurity efforts and the development of automated interfaces between the agency and other government agencies, trade groups and foreign countries.

He will also supervise approximately 2,200 federal and contractor employees who help build, test and maintain automated systems at CBP.

His public-sector career also includes time as senior adviser at the Bureau of Fiscal Service for technology and cybersecurity; deputy associate administrator at the General Services Administration; an assistant director and section chief at the FBI; and CIO at the state of Hawaii, Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Bhagowalia also held a 14-year career at Boeing.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has called for waivers to allow U.S. allies to prevent any sanctions related to the procurement of Russian-made weapons, Military.com reported Friday.

Mattis told lawmakers Thursday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Congress should make “national security exceptions” to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act and fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act in support of U.S. interests.

“We only need to look at India, Vietnam and some others to recognize that eventually we’re going to penalize ourselves” through strict compliance with CAATSA, said Mattis, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

He expressed concerns on the potential sale of Russia’s S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems to countries such as Turkey and India.

President Donald Trump signed in August 2017 CAATSA that imposes sanctions on Russia in response to its involvement in Syria and invasion of Crimea.

CAATSA also enforces sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The U.S. Navy has assigned Capts. John Adametz and Thomas Anderson to leadership positions at the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific and Naval Surface Warfare Center, respectively.

Adametz, commanding officer at the Naval Facilities Expeditionary Warfare Center, will transition to a dual-role as commander of NAVFAC Pacific and U.S. Pacific Fleet civil engineer, the Defense Department said Friday.

Anderson, executive assistant at the Naval Sea Systems Command, will serve as NWSC commander.

Both officers were also selected for promotion to the rank of rear admiral (lower half).

David Norquist, comptroller at the Defense Department, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday that DoD intends to provide lawmakers with a justification report about its plan to acquire cloud computing infrastructure through a single-award contract, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Norquist informed the panel that the department will submit a report to explain its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure acquisition method to Congress by May 7.

DoD is scheduled to issue a final request for proposals on the potential $10 billion JEDI cloud contract next month.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, defended the Pentagon’s cloud procurement strategy during the SASC hearing.

“What we’ve been looking at now is how do we get faster access to young folks on the front lines, displaying the information they need, not all the information in the world,” Mattis told committee members.

“That’s the driving impetus – it’s the lethality.”

The House Armed Services Committee has suggested the establishment of an artificial intelligence support council under a recent draft of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, C4ISRNet reported.

Once approved, the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Policy and Oversight Council will be formed to supervise development of research and applications supporting the Defense Department‘s AI and machine learning capacities.

The group will also be responsible for implementing AI and machine learning across the DoD.

The undersecretary of defense for research and engineering will be appointed to lead this council.

The legislation is a result of the U.S. government’s goal to keep up with China’s efforts to boost AI capacities.