William Manger, formerly managing director at New York City-boutique investment bank Brock Capital Group, has returned to the Small Business Administration as associate administrator for the office of capital access.

He will oversee the office’s portfolio of $120 billion in guaranteed and direct loans, 560 employees, nine operation centers as well as loan initiatives that include the 504 and (7)a loan programs, SBA said Thursday.

SBA Administrator Linda McMahon said Manger “will play a critical part of SBA’s mission by helping entrepreneurs get access to the credit they need to start, grow and succeed in business.”

The agency’s office of capital access works to help small businesses that failed to secure loans by gaining access to funds through lending partners and banks.

Manger previously served at SBA as associate administrator for field operations between 2007 and 2009 and as regional administrator for Region II for nearly three years.

Prior to SBA, he also worked at the Transportation Department as a senior policy adviser.

Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff, has said President Donald Trump’s administration may include moderate Democratic lawmakers in talks to advance the tax reform, budget request and other priorities in the president’s agenda, Reuters reported Sunday.

“If we can come up with a bill that accomplishes the goals of the president with Republicans alone, we’ll take it and we’ll move forward with it,” Priebus said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I think it’s more or less a warning shot that we’re willing to talk to anyone,” he added.

Lindsay Dunsmuir and Doina Chiacu write Priebus’ remarks came after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) announced that he expects a tax reform bill to advance through his panel in the spring of 2017.

Priebus’ statement also came two days after House Republicans decided to drop legislation that would overturn ObamaCare, according to a report by Scott Wong for The Hill newspaper.

Trump called on House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to abandon the bill that would repeal the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act since the proposed legislation failed to get enough Republican votes needed to support its passage in the lower chamber, Wong wrote.

The report added members of the House Freedom Caucus put the proposed bill through a debate Friday and asked for several amendments that seek to reduce premium costs.

NASA has awarded a total of $3.6 million in grants to 10 mission concept studies that will use small satellites to explore Venus, Earth’s moon, asteroids, Mars and outer planets.

The agency said Thursday awardees on the Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies program will use satellites that weigh less than 400 pounds while CubeSats will be built to standard specifications of approximately 4x4x4 inches.

Jim Green, director of the planetary science division at NASA, said the studies seek to inform the agency’s future announcements of opportunity as well as efforts to develop small spacecraft technologies for deep space missions.

The space agency’s science mission directorate currently develops a small satellite strategy that aims to with identify high-priority science objectives that can be supported by CubeSats and SmallSats.

Recipients of the PSDS3 grants are:

• Anthony Colaprete, NASA Ames Research Center
• Benton Clark, Lockheed Martin’s space systems business unit
• Christophe Sotin, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• David Minton, Purdue University
• Jeffrey Plescia, Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory
• Robert Ebert, Southwest Research Institute
• Suzanne Romaine, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
• Timothy Stubbs, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Valeria Cottini, University of Maryland

President Donald Trump has selected Matt Lira, a senior adviser to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to serve as special assistant to the president for innovation policy and initiatives, Recode reported Thursday.

Tony Romm writes Lira will join the White House’s pool of technology advisers that includes former Thiel Capital Chief of Staff Michael Kratsios as deputy chief technology officer.

The report said Lira appears to have left his position at McCarthy’s office on March 17.

Lira has held various positions for government and academic organizations.

He was deputy executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and digital director at the Office of the House Minority Whip.