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Larry Allen: Federal Govt Should Start Acquisition Reform Efforts With ‘Open Dialog’ With Service Contractors
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Larry Allen: Federal Govt Should Start Acquisition Reform Efforts With ‘Open Dialog’ With Service Contractors


acquisition policyLarry Allen, founder and president of Allen Federal Business Partners, has said government acquisition officials should monitor spending on services in order to manage procurement processes in the federal government.

Allen wrote in a Federal News Radio article published Monday that federal acquisition leaders can begin their spending monitoring and procurement reform efforts through an “open dialog” with contractors that work to provide services to government agencies.

“Understanding how federal agencies are viewed as a service customer will likely lead to actionable information that can be used to start a process of service acquisition reform based on common sense,” Allen said.

“This in turn can lead to best practices, and perhaps eventually, procurement rules that are made for service buying so that product-based rules don’t have to be used on something for which they were never intended,” he added.

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Navy, Penn State Researchers Develop Collaborative Soaring, Data Sharing Algorithms for UAS
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Navy, Penn State Researchers Develop Collaborative Soaring, Data Sharing Algorithms for UAS


droneThe Naval Research Laboratory has partnered with the Pennsylvania State University’s Air Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy Lab to demonstrate algorithmic methods for telemetry data exchange between two soaring unmanned aerial vehicles.

NRL said Wednesday its Autonomous Locator of Thermals algorithm and AVIA’s AutoSOAR autonomous soaring algorithm worked to enable two sailplanes to flew autonomously and share information cooperatively during flight tests held at a military airport in Maryland.

Researchers launched a total of 23 unmanned flights at Phillips Army Airfield in September and October to test their cooperative autonomous soaring formulas.

“This testing showed proof of concept on multiple occasions, with both aircraft finding thermals and ‘calling’ the other aircraft over to use the same area of lift to increase endurance of the swarm,” said Dan Edwards, an NRL aerospace engineer.

The algorithms also worked to help the sailplanes glide at an altitude of more than 1,400 meters for up to five hours using only atmospheric power, NRL said.

NRL and AVIA plan to examine the feasibility of combining solar photovoltaic technology and cooperative autonomous soaring methods for solar-powered unmanned flights.

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House Committee to Tackle SES Accountability, Employee Performance Bills
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House Committee to Tackle SES Accountability, Employee Performance Bills


CapitolDomeThe House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to discuss a number of bills intended to change the rules on Senior Executive Service accountability and paid leaves, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

Nicole Ogrysko writes Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) is expected to introduce the Senior Executive Service Accountability Act, which proposes a two-year probationary period for career employees.

The bill also wants to allow career appointees who are removed from service for poor performance to get their basic pay received before they joined the SES, according to the report.

Other measures contained in the bill include a 14-day suspension for career appointees accused of misconduct, authorization for agency leaders to remove employees and reassignment of career appointees, the station reports.

Legislators will also tackle at a business meeting a proposed U.S. Code amendment that aims to change probationary periods for competitive service and SES members, Federal News Radio reports.

Ogrysko writes Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) will also introduce the Official Personnel File Enhancement Act, which calls for the addition of investigation findings to an employee’s personnel file.

GSA Proposes Federal Travel Expense Regulation Amendments
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GSA Proposes Federal Travel Expense Regulation Amendments


AirportRunwayThe General Services Administration has proposed a rule that would amend a section in the Federal Travel Regulation to include ATM fees under incidental expenses rather than miscellaneous expenses.

A notice posted Friday on the Federal Register noted that the amendment aims to bolster the government’s travel cost projections and cost control measures.

The proposal also indicates that it is up to the agency to decide if it will accept the reimbursement of costs for laundry, cleaning and pressing of clothing during the travels of federal officials.

GSA will accept comments on the proposed rule through March 8.

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Mac Thornberry: DoD Should Tolerate Risks in Acquisition Programs
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Mac Thornberry: DoD Should Tolerate Risks in Acquisition Programs


acquisition policyRep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said the Defense Department should tolerate risks through experimentation when it comes to the acquisition of new technology platforms, FCW reported Thursday.

“We’ve got to allow people to make mistakes,” Thornberry said at a committee hearing Thursday.

“One way to help with that is to be able to experiment and prototype so you that you see if something is going to work before you buy a bunch of them,” he added.

Sean Lyngaas writes Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), a ranking member of the House panel, discussed the issue of bureaucracy in DoD’s acquisition system during the hearing.

“What I’m most interested in is how we can more empower the individuals at the Pentagon to make those decisions with fewer layers of bureaucracy,” Smith said.

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Rear Adm. Peter Fanta Previews Navy’s Pipeline of Surface Warfare Programs
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Rear Adm. Peter Fanta Previews Navy’s Pipeline of Surface Warfare Programs


Peter Fanta
Peter Fanta

Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, director of surface warfare (N96) at the U.S. Navy, has said the service branch is working to analyze capability gaps to prepare for its procurement of the Future Surface Combatant slated for 2030.

He told Defense News reporter Christopher Cavas in an interview published Sunday that the production of Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and the replacement of coastal patrol boats are also in the pipeline of programs.

Fanta noted that the Navy will seek to both sustain existing capabilities and introduce new ones as it aims to match capability and capacity requirements to the threat environment.

“We look at future threats, at how those threats come together, what the build rates on the threats are, what we’re most likely to experience and then what do we expect the ship to do,” he said.

He added that budget shortfalls have impacted some planned programs, including modernization efforts for cruiser and amphibious ships and the acquisition of more surface-to-surface missiles for naval vessels.

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DOE National Lab Seeks to Address CBP Radiation Detectors’ Nuisance Alarms; Sonya Bowyer Comments
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DOE National Lab Seeks to Address CBP Radiation Detectors’ Nuisance Alarms; Sonya Bowyer Comments


biohazardThe Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a new method to help the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency reduce the number of nuisance alarms that radiation portal monitors produce at various U.S. ports of entry.

PNNL said Jan. 4 the Revised Operational Settings approach works to optimize the settings of RPMs through the use of alarm algorithms that are considered to be selective energy-sensitive.

CBP uses RPMs at various ports of entry to screen bags, cargo and mail for threatening radiological materials.

“[The ROS method] is based on data analytics techniques utilizing the analysis of the unique characteristics of each specific radiation portal monitor deployed and the type of cargo that goes through it,” said Sonya Bowyer, a physicist at PNNL.

According to PNNL, sea ports and land border crossings have respectively seen a 78 percent and 44 percent drop in average alarm rates on nonthreatening radioisotopes in cargo following the implementation of the new technique.

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Defense News: Lori Robinson In Line for Northern Command Leadership Nomination
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Defense News: Lori Robinson In Line for Northern Command Leadership Nomination


PentagonPresident Barack Obama is considering U.S. Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson as his nomination to the leadership post at U.S. Northern Command, Defense News reported Friday.

Aaron Mehta writes Robinson previously served as deputy commander of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command and in May 2013 took the role as vice commander of the Air Combat Command.

She became the commander of Pacific Air Forces in October 2014 and also received her fourth star via that appointment, according to the report.

Mehta reports she would become the first woman assigned to lead a combatant command if she receives the nomination.

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GAO: Implemented Recommendations Led to $75B in Gov’t Savings in FY 2015
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GAO: Implemented Recommendations Led to $75B in Gov’t Savings in FY 2015


GAOThe Government Accountability Office has said its recommendations that government agencies implemented in a move to improve efficiency resulted in savings valued at $74.7 billion in fiscal year 2015.

GAO said in a blog post published Thursday it achieved an average implementation rate of 80 percent for 1,800 in average annual recommendations it developed from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2015.

According to the agency, 24 federal agencies and departments have yet to take actions on approximately 4,800 open recommendations as of November 12, 2015.

The office also noted that it issued letters to executive branch agencies’ top officials to notify them about the recommendations that still need to be addressed and collaborates with Congress to create laws out of those recommendations.

GAO said it believes the implementation of its recommendations could help enhance public services, improve federal initiatives and boost further revenues and savings across the federal government.

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Maria Contreras-Sweet: SBA Moves to Resolve HR, IT, Contracting Program Challenges
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Maria Contreras-Sweet: SBA Moves to Resolve HR, IT, Contracting Program Challenges


Maria Contreras-Sweet
Maria Contreras-Sweet

Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator at the Small Business Administration, has informed a House committee that the agency launched efforts to address agency operations management issues identified during audits by the SBA Inspector General and Government Accountability Office.

Contreras-Sweet told the House Small Business Committee in a written testimony published Thursday that SBA formed a working group to assess the economic impact of the agency’s programs and a board to develop an enterprise risk management system.

She added the agency invested in cloud and mobile technologies as part of an information technology modernization effort and moved to broaden its employee development programs as well as update contracting and lending processes for the 8(a) Business Development program.

SBA increased its Small Business Investment Company portfolio by about 10 percent to $25 billion during fiscal 2015, according to Contreras-Sweet.

She reported approximately 24.99 percent of all spending on federal contracts awarded over the past fiscal year went to veteran-owned, women-owned and small disadvantaged businesses.

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