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Reports: White House Opposes House Committee’s Contingency Funding Strategy for Defense
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Reports: White House Opposes House Committee’s Contingency Funding Strategy for Defense


ArmyChopperThe White House has threatened to veto the House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2017 defense policy bill for using overseas contingency operations fund to supplement the Defense Department‘s base budget, The Hill newspaper reported Monday.

Kristina Wong writes an HASC-approved 2017 National Defense Authorization Act seeks to use approximately $18 billion from the OCO account to finance the department’s efforts to retain military personnel and procure additional military vehicles.

“By gambling with warfighting funds, the bill risks the safety of our men and women fighting to keep America safe, undercuts stable planning and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, dispirits troops and their families, baffles our allies and emboldens our enemies,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy.

The Obama administration also opposes provisions in the committee’s NDAA that would keep a U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and cut funding for equipment and training support for Iraqi and Syrian warfighters, Reuters’ Patricia Zangerle reported.

The report said House GOP leadership expects the bill to go to a floor vote by Wednesday.

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DoD, NASA, GSA Issue Final Rule on Federal Contractor Data System Protection
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DoD, NASA, GSA Issue Final Rule on Federal Contractor Data System Protection


acquisition policyThe Defense Department, NASA and the General Services Administration have released a final rule that lists 15 security control measures that seek to protect contractors’ data systems as part of amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the National Law Review reported Monday.

Alexander W. Major writes the rule covers systems that store and process “federal contract information” and applies to the acquisition of all commercial items except for commercial-off-the-shelf products.

According to a document posted Monday in the Federal Register, the regulation will take effect June 15.

Security requirements include the need for contractors to limit data system access to authorized users, verify links to external information platforms, track visitor activity as well as identify, report and rectify information system errors in a “timely manner,” Major reports.

The final rule also calls for contractors to conduct periodic screening of information systems, update protection mechanisms for malicious codes and adopt subnetworks for system components that are publicly accessible.

The regulation contains a flow-down cause that applies to all subcontract levels, according to the report.

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Robert Cardillo: NGA Forms New Strategy to Accelerate Interoperability in GEOINT Enterprise System
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Robert Cardillo: NGA Forms New Strategy to Accelerate Interoperability in GEOINT Enterprise System


Robert Cardillo
Robert Cardillo

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo has unveiled a new strategy for the NGA to accelerate development of an integrated enterprise system for the agency’s GEOINT data contributors and customers globally.

The National System for Geospatial Intelligence Strategy 2016 recommends several professionalization, interoperability and unity of effort initiatives, NGA said Monday.

“As a community, we will rethink how we inspire our workforce, define problems, invest resources, execute the mission and satisfy the evolving needs of our customers at a holistic, enterprise level,” noted  Cardillo.

The NSG framework calls for the agency to establish a certification program for its GEOINT professionals and adopt analytic modeling tools that can facilitate discovery of new objects, relationships or behaviors.

NGA also seeks to disseminate geospatial data to authorized users with an open multi-domain architecture as well as to exploit new sources of information through partnerships with industry.

The agency will work with the National Geospatial Intelligence Committee to execute the strategy and evaluate the agency’s progress in addressing GEOINT Enterprise priorities.

GSA to Assign New Special Item Number for Health IT Under Schedule 70; Roya Konzman Comments
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GSA to Assign New Special Item Number for Health IT Under Schedule 70; Roya Konzman Comments


electronic-health-record-EHRThe General Services Administration plans to designate a new special item number for health information technology services under the agency’s Information Technology Schedule 70 acquisition vehicle, Federal Times reported Monday.

Carten Cordell writes government agencies will have access to health IT services under 132-56 SIN.

Roya Konzman, senior IT specialist at GSA, told Federal Times that the move to assign a new SIN under Schedule 70 comes as GSA projects government spending on health IT services to reach $31.3 billion by 2017.

GSA expects to issue a draft solicitation for the new SIN in May and launch the final solicitation for the new category between June and July, according to the report.

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Rep. Steve Chabot: NDAA Contracting Reforms to Encourage Small Business Participation
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Rep. Steve Chabot: NDAA Contracting Reforms to Encourage Small Business Participation


Steve Chabot
Steve Chabot

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) has said contracting reforms in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 works to open opportunities for small businesses to compete for defense contracts.

Chabot wrote in a guest piece for Defense News published Monday that the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. can help supply warfighter needs amid defense budget cuts.

The chairman of the House Small Business Committee added that the 2016 NDAA incorporated bipartisan contracting bills that were introduced this year, including measures to support small businesses.

The measures work to update the Small Business Act, support small business advocates within federal agencies, open subcontracting and potential prime contract opportunities for small businesses and aid coordination between the Small Business Administration and Defense Department mentor-protege programs, Chabot wrote.

He said the 2016 NDAA also aims to advocate integrity and accountability in small business programs.

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DoD Lifts Funding Level for Zika Virus Surveillance Effort; Franca Jones Comments
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DoD Lifts Funding Level for Zika Virus Surveillance Effort; Franca Jones Comments


HealthThe Defense Department has invested an additional $1.76 million in military laboratories as part of the department’s global Zika virus surveillance effort on deployed service members, DoD News reported Monday.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Franca Jones, chief of the global emerging infections surveillance and response section within the Defense Health Agency, said the fund recipients are part of the GEIS integrated surveillance network of U.S. Army and Navy medical research labs worldwide.

Four lab partners based in the U.S. and five overseas labs will update their work on Zika virus surveillance projects in 18 countries and territories, Cheryl Pellerin reports.

“Our forces are present globally, and we need to make sure that they are able to complete their mission,” Jones said.

“Infectious diseases are one of the things that can impede their ability to do their mission.”

The DoD labs will use the funding to examine DoD personnel based in the U.S., the Caribbean and other overseas locations for Zika, dengue and chikungunya exposures using blood samples in the DoD serum repository, the report said.

Pellerin writes the labs will also check for the presence of the Zika virus in mosquitoes in the Caribbean, East Africa and Southeast Asia and determine whether service members, military beneficiaries and civilians seeking medical care are infected with the virus.

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DHS, NYC Police & Fire Depts Test New Tech at Active Shooter Exercise
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DHS, NYC Police & Fire Depts Test New Tech at Active Shooter Exercise


DHS - ExecutiveMosaicThe Department of Homeland Security and New York City’s police and fire departments engaged in an exercise to test new technologies the three entities believe could aid in efforts to contain and respond to shooting incidents.

DHS said Monday responders took part in a scenario that involved multiple active shooters with improvised explosive devices at the Leon M. Goldstein High School in Brooklyn.

The department added the exercise aimed to evaluate tools selected by NYPD, FDNY and DHS’ science and technology directorate that could support future operations.

“S&T’s role in this exercise is to see if new tools and equipment that have been designed to help responders in an active shooter situation perform as they should,” said Reginald Brothers, DHS under secretary for science and technology.

Brothers added video footage from the activity would support the directorate’s efforts to develop equipment that could support responders during high-pressure situations.

DHS said responders used SOCET GXP for geospatial intelligence; Mutualink to aid voice, text and radio interoperability; Crowd Evacuation Software system to assist in evacuation and the Unmanned Aerial Systems Software to help model threat vectors, launch points and potential distances during UAS attacks.

The U.S. Army Armament Research and Development Engineering Center provided evaluators and cameras to capture video footage to analyze the exercise from their Combating Terrorism Technology Evaluation Program.

NYPD officers from three special operations units took part in the exercise such as the department’s emergency services unit, critical response command and strategic response group.

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FedScoop: GSA 18F Team Starts to Build Bug Bounty Program for Federal Agencies
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FedScoop: GSA 18F Team Starts to Build Bug Bounty Program for Federal Agencies


cyber-hack-network-computerThe General Services Administration‘s 18F digital services team has started to develop a bug bounty program that will provide cash incentives for hackers that discover cybersecurity flaws in federal agencies’ systems, Fedscoop reported Monday.

Billy Mitchell writes 18F worked on the platform to host “bounties as a service” that will offer $3,500 in prizes to hackers that will find bugs in specific sites.

The report noted 18F has experimented with micropurchase-based reverse auctions in an effort to solicit private sector talent for short-term software development projects.

Documents for the bounty program and coding with instructions on how federal teams can participate were uploaded to Github, Fedscoop added.

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House Committee Asks Census Bureau for Info on Decennial Count Tech Preparations
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House Committee Asks Census Bureau for Info on Decennial Count Tech Preparations


surveyThe House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has launched an inquiry into the Census Bureau‘s efforts to address information technology challenges for its next decennial count in 2020.

Chairmen and ranking members of the committee and its subcommittees asked Census Bureau Director John Thompson in a letter published May 10 to submit documents that highlight the bureau’s progress toward meeting IT testing goals in preparation of its 2020 Decennial Census.

The lawmakers also told Thompson they want an update on the bureau’s hiring of a chief information officer who will lead the development and implementation of technology for national population survey data collection.

The bureau is expected to respond to the congressional inquiry by May 24.

Deloitte Outlines Approach to Govt Benefits Programs Fraud Detection; Brien Lorenze Comments
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Deloitte Outlines Approach to Govt Benefits Programs Fraud Detection; Brien Lorenze Comments


deloitteDeloitte has released a new report that recommends a set of approaches the firm believes are needed to address $137 billion in losses to government benefits programs as reported by the Government Accountability Office.

The enterprise approach described in the report incorporates retrospective and prospective strategies, predictive analytics and adaptive techniques, Deloitte said Monday.

“Though modest gains have been realized through audit, compliance, and rules-based monitoring, government agencies can better detect and deter fraud by incorporating advanced analytics into their program integrity strategies,” said Brien Lorenze, a principal at Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Deloitte also presents an overview of what it calls a “holistic program integrity platform” design and the future of program integrity in the report.

The consulting firm recommends federal and state agencies adopt enterprise-level integrity management, build an enterprise strategy, integrate cybersecurity and identity management into program integrity initiatives and adopt data analytics techniques.

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