Profile: John Brennan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Resources in Bureau of Consular Affairs
Published on
Profile: John Brennan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Resources in Bureau of Consular Affairs


Profile: John Brennan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Resources in Bureau of Consular Affairs
John Brennan

John Brennan has served as deputy assistant secretary for resources at the State Department‘s Bureau of Consular Affairs since November 2015.

In that capacity, he manages the bureau’s budget, strategic planning, human resources and information technology functions.

The 32-year State Department veteran previously held the roles of senior adviser for the Electronic Visa Project, project director for the Global Support Services effort and coordinator for the Western Hemisphere Initiative.

He also served as minister counselor for consular affairs in Mexico, where he oversaw the consular operations of the U.S. embassy and Consulates General there, as well as coordinated the expansion of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program from 2006 to 2007.

Brennan has managed visa operations in Poland and the U.K.; handled immigrant and diversity visas in Belarus,  Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine; and served in Japan and China.

His government awards include the State Department’s Barbara Watson Award for Consular Service and the Presidential Rank Award.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chinese language from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Chinese language and literature from Washington University at St. Louis.

/
DHS S&T Directorate Unveils New Bluetooth Access Control Capacity for Virtual Mobile Infrastructure
Published on
DHS S&T Directorate Unveils New Bluetooth Access Control Capacity for Virtual Mobile Infrastructure


DHS S&T Directorate Unveils New Bluetooth Access Control Capacity for Virtual Mobile InfrastructureThe Department of Homeland Security‘s science and technology directorate has created and commercialized a new Bluetooth access control capacity for virtual mobile infrastructure on mobile devices.

DHS said Wednesday the VMI platform offers no data-at-rest capacity on mobile devices which will help provide secure access to applications and enterprise data that run in a cloud or data center environment using any device.

“Government personnel can use the Bluetooth access control capability on the smartphone to connect to the virtual device managed in the cloud,” said Vincent Sritapan, a DHS S&T program manager.

“This technology presents an opportunity for government to securely connect with first responders to support the Homeland Security Enterprise,” said Robert Griffin, acting under secretary for science and technology.

Hypori Federal secured a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II Other Agencies Technology Solutions contract in July 2016 to continue the expansion of VMI capacity for government mobility use.

The company expanded the VMI suite as part of the S&T Cyber Security Division’s Mobile Device Security R&D project to help end-users connect virtual devices to a managed Bluetooth without any resident data.

/
Air Force Gen. David Goldfein Looks to Incorporate Space Into Joint Warfighting Domain
Published on
Air Force Gen. David Goldfein Looks to Incorporate Space Into Joint Warfighting Domain


Air Force Gen. David Goldfein Looks to Incorporate Space Into Joint Warfighting DomainGen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, has said the U.S. military should regard space as a joint warfighting domain instead of a unique area that only certain people understand, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Jim Garamone writes Goldfein told audience at a Defense Writers’ Group event Tuesday that he wants to “normalize” space operations and explore the potential space applications of land-, sea- and air-based constructs.

Goldfein added the integration of sea, air, space and cyber functions is key to future military success.

The general also noted he wants a stable defense budget to help the Air Force plan for long-term investments such as F-35 fighter jets, B-21 bombers, new tanker aircraft, nuclear modernization and space and cyber defense programs.

/
IARPA Program Seeks to Build Up Analytic Reasoning Through Crowdsourcing-Based Platforms
Published on
IARPA Program Seeks to Build Up Analytic Reasoning Through Crowdsourcing-Based Platforms


IARPA Program Seeks to Build Up Analytic Reasoning Through Crowdsourcing-Based PlatformsThe Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has launched a new program to develop and test technology platforms that seek to use crowdsourcing to help analysts and decision makers understand and determine whether assumptions and evidence support their conclusions.

The Crowdsourcing Evidence, Argumentation, Thinking and Evaluation program seeks to “combine crowdsourcing with structured techniques to improve reasoning on complex analytic issues,” Steven Rieber, IARPA program manager, said in a statement released Wednesday.

Teams led by Syracuse University, George Mason University, Monash University and the University of Melbourne received contracts from IARPA to perform research work under the CREATE program.

IARPA awarded the contracts through a competitive process under a broad agency announcement for the program.

John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will collaborate with Good Judgment to test the resulting technology platforms from the program.

/
Senate Confirms Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General
Published on
Senate Confirms Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General


Senate Confirms Jeff Sessions as US Attorney GeneralThe Senate voted 52-47 Wednesday to confirm Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, Reuters reported Thursday.

Julia Edwards Ainsley writes Sessions is the eighth of President Donald Trump’s 22 Cabinet nominees that have been confirmed.

Sessions served as a Republican senator from Alabama for four terms beginning in 1997.

He was a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Sessions was elected as the state’s attorney general and nominated by former president Ronald Reagan to serve as U.S. attorney for Alabama’s southern district.

Sessions held a two-year role as assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of Alabama.

He practiced law in Russellville and Mobile, Alabama and served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

FDA Clears Army-Backed Hemorrhagic Shock Detection Tech
Published on
FDA Clears Army-Backed Hemorrhagic Shock Detection Tech


FDA Clears Army-Backed Hemorrhagic Shock Detection TechThe Food and Drug Administration has approved a hemorrhagic shock detection device that U.S. Army researchers developed alongside scientists and engineers from the University of Colorado and Flashback Technologies.

The Army Institute of Surgical Research said Wednesday it helped create a compensatory reserve index that works to detect whether a patient is on the verge of going into hemorrhagic shock.

CRI uses an algorithm designed to measure the compensatory reserve which represents the body’s capacity to compensate for blood loss.

“[The clearance] paves the way for fielding a compensatory reserve measurement device to give combat medics on the battlefield a tool to predict hemorrhagic shock, as well as emergency medical technicians in civilian medical settings,” said Victor Convertino, a USAISR senior scientist.

Convertino added CRI will help medics attend to wounded warriors in battlefiled conditions where there are “lots of noise, lots of adrenaline and not much equipment.”

USAISR noted traditional methods to take vital signs cannot detect when a patient is in danger of crashing or going into hemorrhagic shock which could lead to death due to blood loss.

/
GAO: VA Personnel Should Modernize Current IT Systems
Published on
GAO: VA Personnel Should Modernize Current IT Systems


GAO: VA Personnel Should Modernize Current IT SystemsThe Government Accountability Office has recommended the Department of Veterans Affairs to address issues regarding critical system modernizations, data center consolidation and the retirement of legacy systems to help refresh the VA’s information technology environment.

According to a report published Tuesday, GAO suggested the VA to establish metrics and goals that will determine the extent to which VA’s modernized electronic health record system meets interoperability with the Defense Department.

GAO also recommended the VA modernize or replace obsolete legacy IT systems as well as address challenges regarding the modernization of the latter’s scheduling system including gaps on the Veterans Benefits Management System implementation and planning.

The government watchdog agency noted that VA has not yet created a long-term plan to address EHR system needs beyond fiscal year 2018, while neither VA nor the DoD have established outcome-oriented goals to define expectations from efforts to bolster EHR interoperability.

VA has started a new program to create or purchase a new scheduling system following the collapse of a previous modernization project for the agency’s outpatient appointment scheduling system that has been in use for more than 30 years.

GAO added that VA did not establish a timeframe and cost estimate for the completion of the VBMS system used to manage disability benefits and the agency also did not meet any of the Office of Management and Budget-established data center optimization areas.

/
Lawmakers Request CBO Cost Estimates for 355-Ship Navy Plan
Published on
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
Published on
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
Published on
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.

1 … 2,357 2,358 2,359 2,360 2,361 … 2,704