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Congressional Budget Office Names Mark Hadley as New Deputy Director
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Congressional Budget Office Names Mark Hadley as New Deputy Director


CBOMark 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.

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GAO to Review CBP’s Arizona Border Surveillance Tech Programs
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GAO to Review CBP’s Arizona Border Surveillance Tech Programs


Border PatrolThe 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.

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Obama to Nominate Thomas Atkin, Daniel Feehan for DoD Asst. Secretary Posts
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Obama to Nominate Thomas Atkin, Daniel Feehan for DoD Asst. Secretary Posts


WhiteHousePresident Barack Obama plans to nominate Thomas Atkin, a former Raytheon homeland security programs director, and Daniel Feehan, a former White House fellow in the Pentagon, for new positions within the Defense Department.

Obama will nominate Atkin as assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Feehan as assistant secretary of defense for readiness, the White House said Wednesday.

“I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service,” Obama said in announcement, which included other nominations.

Atkin, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral, is the current principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and has served in various roles for the Coast Guard and National Security Council.

Feehan became the deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness and special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense before being appointed as the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness in August 2015.

US-Vietnam Education Cooperation Covers Curriculum Support, Training Programs
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US-Vietnam Education Cooperation Covers Curriculum Support, Training Programs


partnershipThe U.S. government continues its cooperation efforts with Vietnam through a series of programs that support the latter country’s efforts to build on its higher education system.

The White House said Wednesday the education alliance has assisted more than 30,000 university students with curriculum support and capacity building.

Efforts have expanded to include training in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine with the help of private-sector funding support.

The Improving Access, Curriculum and Teaching in Medical Education and Emerging Diseases and Building University-Industry Learning and Development through Innovation and Technology alliances — both led by the U.S. Agency for International Development — will work to provide education and workforce development support in Vietnam with the help of industry and university partners.

The White House also noted the country’s efforts to assist Vietnam’s development through the Vietnam Education Foundation and the $20 million investment that helped establish Fulbright University Vietnam.

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Army War College Explores Strategy to Avoid US-China Conflict
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Army War College Explores Strategy to Avoid US-China Conflict


China flag_EGovU.S. Army Col. (ret.) William Braun, a research professor at the Army War College’s Strategic Institute, has discussed steps he says could help avoid conflict between the U.S. and China over territorial claims.

Braun said at a panel discussion that the Army and national strategy policymakers must try to understand China’s role as a co-power in the region and prevent U.S. allies from compromising partnerships with China, the Army said Tuesday.

He said during the event at the National Press Club in Washington that a strategy based on an old Chinese game called “Go” can help resolve what he describes as a tense U.S.-China relationship.

He noted that the U.S. and its partner nations in Southeast Asia need to find a way to negotiate in the “gray zone” — such as one found in the Go game — so that China could rise to power without involving force.

Braun also proposed that the partner nations share the cost of regional defense and lead military training and preparedness in order to reduce tension with China, the Army said.

He also urged the U.S. to conduct military-to-military engagements with China to resolve conflict.

Braun led a nine-month study on his proposed strategy at USAWC.

Sylvia Burwell, Lisa Monaco: White House Unveils Data Security Framework for Precision Medicine Initiative
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Sylvia Burwell, Lisa Monaco: White House Unveils Data Security Framework for Precision Medicine Initiative


electronic-health-record-EHRThe White House has released a framework that aims to ensure security of health care data as part of President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative that seeks to help clinicians customize treatments based on the patients’ needs.

A White House blog post published Wednesday says the Data Security Policy Principles and Framework is based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework and intends to provide precision medicine agencies and organizations a risk management approach to data security.

Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, co-wrote the post with Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism.

The document outlines eight principles that precision medicine organizations can implement to protect patients’ data under PMI.

These include the development of management and evaluation plans that seek to address data security risks, use of security controls to safeguard data and creation of a system that can be trusted by program participants.

The framework also recommends several measures that PMI institutions can adopt in order to protect data from cyber threats and other vulnerabilities.

These measures call for organizations to develop a risk-based security plan, subject such plans to independent third-party assessments, protect data through implementation of access controls, data encryption and training, as well as detect data security risks through audit logs and threat information sharing.

James Clapper: Diverse Workforce Fundamental to Intell Community’s Mission
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James Clapper: Diverse Workforce Fundamental to Intell Community’s Mission


James Clapper
James Clapper

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has urged intelligence agencies to promote diversity and a culture of inclusion in their workplaces during his speech at the IC Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity Leadership Summit held Wednesday in Bethesda, Maryland.

Clapper said in his written remarks he believes the community has made a substantial progress in efforts to build a diverse and inclusive workforce, empower staff and increase minority representation at senior levels.

“People in our intelligence community who belong to a minority group… need to feel welcome in our community, and they need to know they shouldn’t hide what makes them unique,” he noted.

“They need to feel they are valued, and to know that we can’t meet our mission without the unique qualities they bring to our intelligence community.”

He said IC plans to release an unclassified demographics report online within the next two weeks and encourage the public to provide feedback on the matter.

House OKs Bills to Shrink Federal Real Estate Footprint; Rep. Jeff Denham Comments
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House OKs Bills to Shrink Federal Real Estate Footprint; Rep. Jeff Denham Comments


FedBuildingThe House of Representatives has passed two bills that seek to reduce the federal government’s footprint, consolidate real estate properties and negotiate office space lease deals.

The Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (H.R. 4465) and the Public Buildings Reform and Savings Act of 2016 (H.R. 4487) mean to change how unused federal real estate are sold and disposed, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Monday.

“By selling and consolidating unneeded and underutilized federal property we can save taxpayer dollars and revitalize communities in the process,” said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-California), lead sponsor of H.R. 4465

Reps. Denham, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), Lou Barletta (R-Pennsylvania), Andre Carson (D-Indiana) and Elijah Cummings introduced H.R. 4465 to refurbish high-value properties identified by a proposed Public Buildings Reform Board.

The bill calls for the General Services Administration to publish a database that contains data about all excess federal real properties.

Reps. Barletta, Carson, Shuster, DeFazio, and other members of the Transportation Committee proposed H.R. 4487 to create a Streamlined Leasing Pilot Program to eliminate red tape on GSA leases and step up GSA’s oversight of the acquisition and construction of new federal space.

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Ashton Carter Opposes Provision to Separate Defense R&D, Procurement Functions
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Ashton Carter Opposes Provision to Separate Defense R&D, Procurement Functions


Ashton Carter
Ashton Carter

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said he opposes language in a draft fiscal 2017 defense authorization bill to separate military procurement and research and engineering functions into two proposed organizations, DoD News reported Wednesday.

“I couldn’t support something that supports that separation, I just know better,” Carter was quoted as saying by DoD News.

Jim Garamone writes Carter told audience at a Naval College War forum held Wednesday in Newport, Rhode Island, he also wants to see the military service chiefs take more direct responsibility for acquisition programs.

Carter highlighted the importance of people and technology in DoD’s national security efforts during a troop talk Monday at Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut, Terri Moon Cronk of DoD News reported Monday.

“Attracting good people to follow you, retaining good people like you in the future, is an important responsibility [that] I and the rest of the leadership have,” he told military personnel there.

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David Tillotson: DoD ‘Delayering’ Initiative Eyes $1.9B Savings for Military Training, Readiness
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David Tillotson: DoD ‘Delayering’ Initiative Eyes $1.9B Savings for Military Training, Readiness


PentagonA Defense Department official has said DoD has begun to implement a “delayering” program at its headquarters in an effort to reduce personnel costs by 25 percent, DoD News reported Wednesday.

David Tillotson III, assistant deputy chief management officer at DoD, told DoD News reporter Lisa Ferdinando in an interview that the Pentagon aims to achieve $1.9 billion in savings through the initiative and use that savings for military readiness and training efforts.

Tillotson said the delayering initiative will run from fiscal year 2016 through FY 2020 and aims to restructure business practices and processes through attrition or reassignment of employees to other positions.

“By starting now, we have multiple years to address the issue,” he said.

Approximately 1,260 positions are slated for elimination within defense agencies and other field activities, while 309 positions are expected to be cut within the office of defense secretary, Tillotson told DoD News.

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