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Lawmakers Request CBO Cost Estimates for 355-Ship Navy Plan
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Lawmakers Request CBO Cost Estimates for 355-Ship Navy Plan


Lawmakers Request CBO Cost Estimates for 355-Ship Navy PlanLawmakers have asked the Congressional Budget Office to develop cost estimates for the U.S. Navy‘s plan to grow its fleet size to 355 ships, USNI News reported Tuesday.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia) said at an Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition event that CBO will provide scenarios on how to achieve a 355-ship Navy fleet over the next 15 to 30 years, Megan Eckstein wrote.

Wittman noted it is “equally important” to maintain existing Navy ships to help the service branch meet its goal, Eckstein reported.

A CBO analysis revealed in January that the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan to reach 355 ships will cost $60 billion more than the service branch originally estimated.

GAO: Public Debt-to-GDP Ratio to Surpass Historical High Within 15 Years
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GAO: Public Debt-to-GDP Ratio to Surpass Historical High Within 15 Years


GAO: Public Debt-to-GDP Ratio to Surpass Historical High Within 15 YearsA Government Accountability Office report obtained by Deltek predicts the ratio of U.S. public debt to gross domestic product to grow and exceed the historical high of 106 percent in 1946 within the next 15 to 25 years and continue to rise beyond that period.

John Slye wrote in a blog post published Tuesday GAO said such a fiscal path is unsustainable and would put more pressure on the federal budget, increase the chance of a future fiscal crisis and restrict lawmakers’ ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances if left unaddressed.

The report titled The Nation’s Fiscal Health: Action Is Needed to Address the Federal Government’s Fiscal Future also found that federal deficit rose from $439 billion in fiscal year 2015 to $587 billion in FY 2016.

GAO noted that the U.S. government posted an $18 billion increase in receipts associated with taxes and other collections between FY 2015 and 2016.

Federal spending in FY 2016 reached $3.8 trillion, up $166.5 billion from last year’s spending.

The document also showed that federal debt totalled $19.7 trillion in fiscal 2016, about $1.4 trillion higher from last year driven by the increase in public and intragovernmental debt.

GAO urged the U.S. government to reduce improper payments, address the tax gap, build up management data through the implementation of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 and continue initiatives to reduce duplication, among other recommendations.

CBO: Federal Budget Deficit at $159B After 4 Months of FY 2017
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CBO: Federal Budget Deficit at $159B After 4 Months of FY 2017


CBO: Federal Budget Deficit at $159B After 4 Months of FY 2017A new Congressional Budget Office report shows that federal budget shortfall hit $159 billion after the first four months of fiscal 2017, approximately $1 billion lower than the figure recorded for the same period in fiscal 2016.

CBO said Tuesday total amount of receipts associated with individual and corporate income taxes as well as Federal Reserve remittances increased by less than 1 percent to $1.1 trillion over the past four months.

Federal spending amounted to $1.2 trillion in the past four months, up $4 billion from the outlays posted in the same period last year.

The agency associated the increase in federal outlays in the first four months of FY 2017 with the rise in spending on Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid programs and net interest on government debt.

The federal government posted $49 billion in budget surplus last month, about $6 billion lower than the surplus recorded in January 2016.

CBO noted that last month’s receipts reached $343 billion, up $30 billion from the figure posted in January 2016.

Government spending totaled $294 billion in January 2017, about $36 billon higher from outlays recorded in the prior-year period.

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GAO: DHS Needs to Work With Partners to Coordinate Critical infrastructure Access Control Efforts
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GAO: DHS Needs to Work With Partners to Coordinate Critical infrastructure Access Control Efforts


GAO: DHS Needs to Work With Partners to Coordinate Critical infrastructure Access Control EffortsThe Government Accountability Office has urged the Department of Homeland Security to collaborate with partners to identify ways on how to coordinate access control initiatives across critical infrastructure sectors.

DHS’ screening coordination office should update its goals and objectives in order to help harmonize screening and credentialing efforts across the department, GAO said in a report published Tuesday.

GAO made the recommendations after it reviewed six federally-administered access control initiatives for critical infrastructure and found that access control efforts have a different impact on users and operators based on their specific interests and roles.

Users and operators told GAO that applicants that seek access to similar types of facilities are likely to be required to make multiple submissions of the same background information.

The congressional budget watchdog also found that SCO’s policy documents – 2006 Credentialing Initiative Report and 2008 Credentialing Framework Initiative – that shape the office’s strategic framework for the coordination of access control efforts within DHS lack updated objectives and goals.

GAO noted that DHS implements partnership models that could provide the department and its partners a mechanism on how to determine methods to correlate credentialing and screening processes.

Profile: Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello, Defense Contract Management Agency Director
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Profile: Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello, Defense Contract Management Agency Director


Wendy Masiello
Wendy Masiello

Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello serves as director of the Defense Contract Management Agency.

In this capacity, Masiello oversees federal acquisition programs and contracts with at least 20,000 industry vendors and leads an agency with a staff of nearly 12,000 people under the Defense Department.

Prior to his current position, the 36-year Air Force veteran was deputy assistant secretary for contracting for three years.

She also served as program executive officer for combat and mission support at the office of the service branch’s assistant secretary for acquisition, commander of the 95th Air Base Wing at Edwards Air Force Base in California and principal assistant for contracting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Masiello, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2016, is a recipient of numerous military awards, including the Legion of Merit, Air Force Achievement Medal and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster.

Masiello holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Texas Tech University, a master’s degree in logistics management from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

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Report: White House Eyes Approval of Missile, F-16 Sale to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
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Report: White House Eyes Approval of Missile, F-16 Sale to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain


Report: White House Eyes Approval of Missile, F-16 Sale to Saudi Arabia, BahrainThe White House looks to approve a proposed $300 million foreign military sale of precision-guided missile package to Saudi Arabia and a potential multibillion dollar order for F-16 aircraft from Bahrain, The Washington Times reported Wednesday.

A U.S. government official told The Times the approval of both transactions would be “significant” sales for two of key Gulf-area U.S. allies that currently face security threats and support the fight against the Islamic State militant group.

“Whereas the Obama administration held back on these, they’re now in the new administration’s court for a decision — and I would anticipate the decision will be to move forward,” the official added, according to the report.

The report said former President Barack Obama previously blocked the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain over human rights concerns.

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Former Transportation CIO Richard Mckinney Details Agency’s Network Security Mgmt Effort
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Former Transportation CIO Richard Mckinney Details Agency’s Network Security Mgmt Effort


Former Transportation CIO Richard Mckinney Details Agency's Network Security Mgmt Effort
Richard McKinney

Richard McKinney, former chief information officer at the Transportation Department, has said Riverbed‘s performance monitoring and diagnostics tools helped the department detect 200 unexpected devices on its networks, FedTech Magazine reported Friday.

Mckinney told Mike Gruss in an interview that the Transportation Department used Riverbed’s SteelCentral suite of products to measure bandwidth use which led to the discovery of more than 1,000 devices operating within the agency’s networks.

The former CIO said the detection of 200 additional devices was an “unintended consequence” that gave the department a better understanding of its network.

He told both the Federal CIO Council and former federal CIO Tony Scott that CIOs should not assume that they understand their agencies’ networks without automatic network detection and management tools in place.

Mckinney said he would verify whether a federal department has a way to automatically detect and manage networks as his first agenda if appointed to another agency CIO post.

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DHS Secretary John Kelly Backs ‘Critical’ Designation for US Election Infrastructure
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DHS Secretary John Kelly Backs ‘Critical’ Designation for US Election Infrastructure


DHS Secretary John Kelly Backs 'Critical' Designation for US Election InfrastructureJohn Kelly, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said that he plans to retain the former Obama administration’s critical infrastructure designation to U.S. election systems as part of cybersecurity efforts, The Hill newspaper reported Tuesday.

Morgan Chalfant writes the designation expanded federal protections for election infrastructure to cover polling and vote tabulation stations, storage facilities, information and communications technology.

“I believe we should help all of the states to make sure their systems are protected, so I would argue we should keep that in place,” said Kelly.

The Department of Homeland Security sought to include state election systems as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure in a push to help the federal government protect voting equipment against cyber threats, Reuters’ Dustin Volz reported.

The report said the Republican-led House Administration Committee on Tuesday voted in favor of a proposal to disband the federal Election Assistance Commission.

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Stratcom, Belgium’s Federal Science Policy Office Enter Space Data, Service Sharing Pact
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Stratcom, Belgium’s Federal Science Policy Office Enter Space Data, Service Sharing Pact


Stratcom, Belgium's Federal Science Policy Office Enter Space Data, Service Sharing PactThe U.S. Strategic Command and Belgium’s federal science policy office have agreed to exchange space-related information and services in a joint push to increase situational  awareness in the space domain.

Stratcom said Tuesday that BELSPO joins two intergovernmental organizations, 11 countries and more than 50 commercial satellite launchers/owners/operators that participate in space situational awareness sharing efforts with the command.

“Agreements such as these help to strengthen our alliances while at the same time increasing our resiliency,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Clinton Crosier, director of plans and policy at Stratcom.

Crosier signed a memorandum of understanding with Elke Sleurs, Belgium’s secretary of state for science policy, in Brussels to formalize the agreement.

SSA data-sharing agreements aim to reinforce multinational space cooperation and accelerate the delivery of specific information that partners have requested from Stratcom.

Stratcom noted that information distributed to partners will aid in satellite maneuver planning, electromagnetic interference reporting and investigation, satellite decommissioning and on-orbit conjunction assessment efforts.

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Reports: Air Force to Operate A-10 Aircraft Through 2021
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Reports: Air Force to Operate A-10 Aircraft Through 2021


Reports: Air Force to Operate A-10 Aircraft Through 2021Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein has said the U.S. Air Force will continue to use the A-10 Warthog aircraft for the service branch’s close-air support missions until 2021, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Valerie Insinna writes the Air Force general told reporters that the Defense Department will discuss plans for the future of the A-10 fleet, which was initially slated for retirement in 2018.

Goldfein added he wants the discussion on close-air support mission to move from a “platform-centric” discourse to a “family of systems” approach.

Aviation Week’s Lara Seligman reported the Air Force also mulls the procurement of 300 light-attack aircraft to support A-10s and other CAS planes in the fight against the Islamic State militant group.

Goldfein said the service branch may explore commercial-off-the-shelf designs for light fighters and engage companies such as Textron in the effort, according to the report.

The Air Force sent a budget request to President Donald Trump in January that includes an additional $8 million to study low-cost, low-end fighter aircraft, Seligman wrote.

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