Congress OKs $61B in Ukraine Funding, Potential TikTok Ban in Foreign Aid Package
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Congress OKs $61B in Ukraine Funding, Potential TikTok Ban in Foreign Aid Package

A package of four bills that would provide $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region is now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature after the Senate passed the package in a 79-18 vote Tuesday, Reuters reported.

In a statement published Tuesday, the president called the legislation as a measure that seeks to strengthen national security and demonstrate U.S. leadership in advancing freedom and democracy and fighting tyranny and oppression.

“I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week,” added Biden.

The package would provide $61 billion in funding for Ukraine to help the country counter the Russian invasion that started in February 2022.

The other bills would allocate $26 billion for Israel and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific region to help “counter communist China,” according to the report.

A potential ban on the social media platform TikTok and new sanctions on Iran are also included in the package, which passed the House on Saturday.

The report noted that the House voted 311-112 to approve the package’s Ukraine funding portion.

GAO Outlines Recommendations to Improve Federal Audit Clearinghouse Information, Usability
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GAO Outlines Recommendations to Improve Federal Audit Clearinghouse Information, Usability

The Government Accountability Office has found in a new report that the Federal Audit Clearinghouse responsible for reviewing federal grant audits cannot identify recipients that did not submit a single audit, providing federal agencies with inadequate data to conduct oversight.

GAO also found that the Office of Management and Budget has not designated an entity to initiate a government-wide single audit quality review since 2007 and recommended that the office conduct such a review at a regular interval.

According to GAO, a government-wide review is crucial to helping federal agencies identify issues in the quality of single audits that can impact the quality and completeness of FAC information.

To address this concern, GAO recommended that Congress consider amending the Single Audit Act to require OMB to perform regular government-wide single audit quality reviews and submit a report on the findings from each review to the appropriate committees of Congress.

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Latest Version of TEFCA Common Agreement Calls for FHIR API Exchange Support
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Latest Version of TEFCA Common Agreement Calls for FHIR API Exchange Support

Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement-qualified health information networks may now adopt and implement version 2.0 of the Common Agreement, which was released on April 22 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and The Sequoia Project, the TEFCA-recognized coordinating entity.

The Common Agreement makes it possible for users on different health information networks to share information securely by establishing a governing approach and infrastructure model, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.

One of the features of CA v2.0 is a requirement to support Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Application Programming Interface exchange. The requirement would further facilitate information sharing as well as user access to healthcare information via one’s preferred app through TEFCA.

According to Micky Tripathi, national coordinator for health information technology, “We have long intended for TEFCA to have the capacity to enable FHIR API exchange. This is in direct response to the health IT industry’s move toward standardized APIs with modern privacy and security safeguards, and allows TEFCA to keep pace with the advanced, secure data services approaches used by the tech industry.”

Accompanying the release of CA v2.0 is the Participant and Subparticipant Terms of Participation, which covers the requirements that interested parties seeking to join TEFCA must agree to and comply with.

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NIST Addresses Use of Syncable Authenticators via Supplement to Digital Identity Guidelines
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NIST Addresses Use of Syncable Authenticators via Supplement to Digital Identity Guidelines

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a supplement to an existing NIST Special Publication to provide interim guidance for agencies that intend to use syncable authenticators in public-facing and enterprise-facing use cases.

NIST said Tuesday the document is the first supplement to its SP 800-63B Digital Identity Guidelines: Authentication and Lifecycle Management.

According to the supplement, syncable authenticators are cryptographic authenticators or FIDO passkeys that use multiple protocols and standards and allow for the private key to be cloned and stored separate of the authenticator to back use of the key across devices.

“When implemented correctly, they provide a phishing-resistant authenticator with many benefits, such as simplified recovery, cross device support, and consumer friendly platform authentication support (for example, native biometrics),” the document states.

NIST said the supplement provides agencies direction on how to use syncable authenticators in support of the federal zero trust strategy.

The agency will accept feedback on syncable authenticators and the supplement’s content during the second round of public comments for Revision 4 of the guidelines, which will open later in 2024.

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Zepher Flight Labs, NovaSpark Energy to Prototype Hydrogen Generators for Austere Environments
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Zepher Flight Labs, NovaSpark Energy to Prototype Hydrogen Generators for Austere Environments

Zepher Flight Labs and NovaSpark Energy have secured contracts from the Defense Innovation Unit to build prototype technologies designed to generate hydrogen in austere and isolated environments to power unmanned aerial systems, small unit equipment and tactical vehicles.

DIU said Monday the companies will build their hydrogen generation prototypes under the Hydrogen at the Tactical Edge of Contested logistics, or HyTEC, project in 2024 in preparation for testing and field experimentation in early 2025.

“With this new capability and by generating hydrogen power at the tactical edge, small units will be better able to self-sustain operations in remote locations and will be less reliant on fuel supply chains,” said Andrew Mawdsley, HyTEC program manager at DIU.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office, the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, the U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center and the Department of Energy will serve as project collaborators and evaluators under the HyTEC project.

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NASA Awards SBIR Phase II Contracts to 95 Small Businesses; Jenn Gustetic Quoted
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NASA Awards SBIR Phase II Contracts to 95 Small Businesses; Jenn Gustetic Quoted

NASA has awarded $93.5 million in Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contracts to 95 small companies to help further develop 107 space technology ideas.

The space agency said Monday the awardees have 24 months to implement their plans and bring their technologies to market.

According to NASA, 21 percent of the small businesses are first-time Phase II awardees and each vendor can apply for up to $50,000 in funding under the Technical and Business Assistance program to seek market opportunities for their proposed tech platforms.

Each Phase II contract is worth up to $850,000.

“We are thrilled to support this diverse set of companies as they work diligently to bring their technologies to market,” said Jenn Gustetic, director of early stage innovation and partnerships with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

“Inclusive innovation is integral to mission success at NASA, and we’re excited to see that 29% of the awardees are from underrepresented groups, including 11% women-owned businesses,” added Gustetic.

Phase II awardees include nou Systems, which is working on a genetic testing instrument, and PickNik, which has developed software designed to improve robotic missions on the lunar surface and Mars.

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GSA Appoints Mehul Parekh, Jetta Wong in Series of Exec Moves
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GSA Appoints Mehul Parekh, Jetta Wong in Series of Exec Moves

Mehul Parekh, former chief financial officer of the Federal Student Aid Office at the Department of Education, will serve as acting associate administrator for government-wide policy at the General Services Administration.

He will temporarily take over the responsibilities of Krystal Brumfield, who is departing from GSA on May 4, the agency said Monday.

Prior to his time at the Education Department, Parekh was with GSA for over five years. He initially served as director of budget in April 2018 and eventually transitioned to deputy chief financial officer role at GSA in March 2022.

The agency also announced other appointees, including Jetta Wong‘s move to assume a new role as deputy chief of staff for policy, responsible for overseeing policies that cover sustainability and other high-priority areas requiring agency-wide policy development, direction and coordination and oversight.

She was a senior adviser to the administrator for climate at GSA over the last two years, supporting agency and government-wide efforts to implement the $3.4 billion provided in the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the largest climate law in U.S. history.

Aside from Parekh and Wong, GSA also named Christine Simpson as senior adviser to the deputy administrator and Kusai Merchant as senior adviser to the Federal Acquisition Service.

Army Christens 1st Production Model of M10 Booker Combat Vehicle
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Army Christens 1st Production Model of M10 Booker Combat Vehicle

The U.S. Army has christened the first production model of its M10 Booker combat vehicle, manufactured by General Dynamics’ land systems division, during a ceremony held at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Over the next several months, the vehicle will undergo operational tests with the 82nd Airborne Division in preparation for the fielding of the first operational company of M10 Booker combat vehicles in 2025, the Army said Thursday.

“The Army is undertaking its most significant transformation in several decades to dominate in large-scale combat operations in a multidomain environment, and the M10 Booker is a crucial part of that transformation,” said Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and a previous Wash100 awardee.

Prior to its deployment, the M10 Booker will undergo testing to evaluate the vehicle’s reliability and maintainability in the field.

“We will also put the vehicle through production qualification and testing in desert, arctic, temperate and tropical conditions, challenging it with obstacles like gaps and walls to scale, and engaging it with real word threats to ensure its survivability,” said Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, program executive officer for ground combat systems.

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DOD Awards Funding for Hypersonic Materials & Processing Technologies Development
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DOD Awards Funding for Hypersonic Materials & Processing Technologies Development

Nine performers have been awarded $26.6 million in total by the Manufacturing Technology office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for the Joint Acceleration of Hypersonic Vehicle Aerostructure Alternatives program, which seeks to develop materials and processing technologies for hypersonic systems.

Under JAHVAA, the awardees will work to develop and test non-carbon/carbon thermal protection systems materials with the aim of establishing trusted design allowable data, the Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology Program website said Monday.

JAHVAA will feature a 36-month period of performance split into three phases, each of which will pose a challenge problem that the awardees will have to address using the material and processing capabilities they have proposed.

The program was awarded through the Strategic & Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems other transaction authority contract vehicle, which is managed by the National Security Technology Accelerator.

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Anne Marie Schumann Begins Role as DON Principal Cyber Adviser
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Anne Marie Schumann Begins Role as DON Principal Cyber Adviser

Anne Marie Schumann, a cybersecurity professional, took oath Monday as the Department of the Navy’s principal cyber adviser.

In this capacity, she will advise the secretary of the Navy, chief of naval operations and the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps on all matters related to cybersecurity while working in close coordination with DON’s chief information officer and the Department of Defense’s CIO and principal cyber adviser, the Navy said Monday.

Schumann has over 20 years of experience in the military, public service and industry as a national security and cybersecurity professional.

She most recently served as the senior cyberthreat adviser to the director for command, control, communications and computers/cyber and CIO, Joint Staff J6.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Schumann joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2010 as a senior analyst focused on cyber intelligence after spending three years as a program manager at BAE Systems.

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