Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has asked U.S. internet service providers to enter into voluntary agreements that will reflect their commitment to maintain an open internet, Reuters reported Thursday.

David Shepardson writes Pai also discussed his plans to reverse current net neutrality rules with trade groups that represent the telecommunications industry during a meeting held Tuesday.

FCC implemented rules in early 2015 that banned broadband providers’ selective distribution of high-speed internet, Shepardson reported.

The report said Pai could issue a proposal later this month to overturn the commission’s reclassification of ISPs as public utilities during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

Telecommunications firms such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have said that net neutrality rules would hinder providers’ efforts to manage web traffic and boost capacity.

NASA will break ground Tuesday on a laboratory at Langley Research Center in Virginia as part of a 20-year revitalization initiative to modernize aging structures and construct facilities.

The space agency said Thursday the new Measurement Systems Laboratory will be built to research and develop measurement concepts, systems and technologies for aeronautic, scientific and space exploration missions.

W.M. Jordan secured a $95.6 million contract from the General Services Administration in December to build the R&D facility at Langley.

NASA noted the building will have nearly 40 modular research labs designed to address agency needs for clean rooms, electronics, instrumentation and lasers.

The facility will consolidate labs currently dispersed across Langley, the agency added.

Sens. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) have called on the Government Accountability Office to examine the implementation of a presidential memorandum that imposed a hiring freeze on federal civilian employees.

Both senators told GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro in a joint letter published Tuesday the hiring freeze could increase government spending and have little impact on cost savings or the size of the federal workforce.

GAO’s audit of hiring freezes during the Carter and Reagan administrations showed that agencies used contractors to address staffing shortages despite being prohibited to do so, Peters and Heitkamp noted.

The lawmakers added previous GAO reports revealed that contracting is more expensive than using agency personnel to perform the same work.

Peters and Heitkamp asked the agency to study the effect of the freeze on the federal workforce size and cost savings; impact on agencies’ budget, programs, customer service, workload and employment trends; and whether work formerly done by federal employees is or is likely to be performed by contractors.

GAO was also asked to review guidance and communication from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management to agencies throughout the hiring freeze as well as lessons learned from current and previous freezes.

The U.S. Strategic Command has signed an agreement to share space situational awareness services and information with Norway’s ministry of defense and ministry of trade, industry and fisheries in a push to boost the safety of spaceflight operations in both countries.

Stratcom said Wednesday it also has SSS data-sharing agreements with 12 other countries, two intergovernmental organizations and more than 60 commercial satellite owners, operators and launchers.

The command noted such pacts aim to increase multinational space cooperation and accelerate the process for requesting specific information gathered through Stratcom’s Joint Space Operations Center located at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

“Besides defending this nation against all threats, we also have to protect the space environment so it is available to current and future generations everywhere,” said Gen. John Hyten, Stratcom commander and an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017.

“One of the ways we do that is through space situational awareness, to understand what is going on in space so that our space systems can continue to provide national, military, civil, scientific and economic benefits to the global community.”