The U.S. Agency for International Development and Romania’s foreign ministry have entered into an agreement to promote development cooperation between the U.S. and Romania.

USAID said Wednesday the agreement seeks to enhance U.S.-Romanian collaboration in agendas such as democracy, local governance, health, education, civil society and the European Union regional integration.

USAID Associate Administrator Eric Postel and Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Lazar Comanescu signed the memorandum of understanding, which indicated that USAID and the Romanian foreign affairs ministry will jointly participate in strategic policy planning and implementation, the agency noted.

“It is our firm belief that by working closely with partners in this region, we can further advance democracy, rule of law, economic growth, energy security and the region’s greater integration with the European Union,” Postel said.

USAID added that the countries will also participate in an annual development dialogue to help understand individual development policies, develop bilateral coordination and collaboration proposals and pinpoint shared priorities.

The National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency have awarded five-year grants to five research centers to study how various environmental factors affect health in communities.

NIH said Wednesday the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research funded the designated Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research.

“More than a decade of NIH research has shown that low-income, minority and tribal communities experience higher levels of environmental pollution in the United States, and that these populations often have poorer health,” said NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum.

Scientists from each center will collaborate with community organizations to examine factors that affect health in those communities such as air, water and ground pollution, housing, diet and social dynamics, NIH added.

The agency further said community partners will help scientists formulate research questions, recruit study participants, collect data and turn research results into strategies that could address health issues.

The research centers are:

• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health
• Johns Hopkins University
• University of Arizona
• University of New Mexico
• University of Southern California

Mark Hadley, Congressional Budget Office‘s general counsel, has been named the agency’s new deputy director effective June 6.

Hadley will succeed Bob Sunshine, who will move on as senior adviser in the CBO director’s office, CBO Director Keith Hall writes in a blog post published Wednesday.

“[Hadley] brings to his new position a clarity of thought, an understanding of budget concepts and issues and a deep commitment to CBO’s role as an objective and nonpartisan source of information and analysis — qualities that will serve us well in the coming years,” Hall adds.

Hadley started with CBO 15 years ago as an analyst in the budget analysis division, where he provided cost estimates and projections in the areas of deposit insurance, aviation and commerce.

He has since served as an associate analyst and deputy general counsel before his appointment as general counsel in 2008.

The Government Accountability Office is set to review programs under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan to assess CBP’s implementation of GAO’s recommendations.

CBP kicked off the deployment of technology for three border surveillance programs this month following recommendation from GAO that an independent entity validate CBP’s schedules and cost estimates, GAO said Tuesday.

CBP submitted its schedules for two programs under the plan to GAO in May and the government watchdog wants to determine how CBP responded to its recommendations.

GAO previously identified further opportunities that it said CBP could take to boost oversight of its border surveillance technology plan and related programs in separate reports released in March 2014 and April 2015.