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Rear Adm. Scott Pappano Nominated as Navy’s Principal Military Deputy Assistant Secretary
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Rear Adm. Scott Pappano Nominated as Navy’s Principal Military Deputy Assistant Secretary

President Joe Biden has nominated Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, program executive officer for strategic submarines, for promotion to the rank of vice admiral and to serve as principal military deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

Defense Secretary and three-time Wash100 awardee Lloyd Austin announced Pappano’s nomination in a Department of Defense news release published Friday.

Pappano became PEO for strategic submarines in October 2021.

The rear admiral previously served as commander of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, director of the Comprehensive Test Facility, executive assistant to the commander of Naval Sea Systems Command and major program manager for the Strategic and Attack Submarine Program Office (PMS 392).

His other assignments include executive assistant to the director of the Programming Division (N80) on the Navy Staff and commander of USS Buffalo (SSN 715).

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NSF Chief Sethuraman Panchanathan Defends Proposed $10.2B Agency Budget for FY2025
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NSF Chief Sethuraman Panchanathan Defends Proposed $10.2B Agency Budget for FY2025

National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said at a recent House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee hearing that ensuring funding for his organization’s work on critical and emerging technologies is a matter of national security, MeriTalk reported Thursday.

Panchanathan also expressed concern that the U.S. is falling behind its competitors in terms of global technological leadership because the amount being invested by the government in key technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence is not sufficient.

“The more we cut, the more the ideas that are being proposed to NSF in quantum, in AI will not be funded,” Panchanathan warned the lawmakers.

Also present at the hearing was National Science Board Chair Daniel Reed, who shared Panchanathan’s concerns.

“While other countries invest heavily in the future, our real Federal R&D funding is flat,” Reed said, adding, “So, I’m here today not merely to ask you to fund NSF with the FY25 request level … I’m here to ask for more. I’m asking us to dream better dreams.”

President Joe Biden is proposing a budget of about $10.2 billion for the NSF in fiscal year 2025.

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State Department Seeks Comments on Proposed Federally Funded R&D Centers
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State Department Seeks Comments on Proposed Federally Funded R&D Centers

The State Department has started soliciting feedback on its proposed plan to establish and sponsor three federally funded research and development centers to facilitate public-private collaboration on several efforts related to modernization and diplomacy.

According to a notice published Friday in the Federal Register, the proposed FFRDCs will be divided into three areas: operational support; emerging threats, concept exploration, experimentation and evaluation; and information technology and cyber operations.

Operational support, for instance, includes the development of comprehensive acquisition policies and implementation guidance that foster innovation and establishment of organizational structures and business models that can support operational and strategic goals.

“In particular, we are interested in feedback regarding the proposed scope of the work to be performed by the FFRDCs, and the presence of any existing private- or public-sector capabilities in these areas that the Department should be considering,” the notice reads.

The State Department expects to post on SAM.gov a request for proposals in the summer of 2024.

Michael Derrios, senior procurement executive at the department’s Bureau of Administration, discussed the agency’s new acquisition approach, which includes the creation of its own FFRDCs.

Comments are due Aug. 15.

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Initial Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve Contracts Expected by End of Year; Col. Richard Kniseley Quoted
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Initial Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve Contracts Expected by End of Year; Col. Richard Kniseley Quoted

According to U.S. Space Force Col. Richard Kniseley, the Commercial Space Office is working to release the first contracts for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve by the end of the year, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

Speaking at the recent Washington Space Business Roundtable, Kniseley, who heads COMSO, also said his office aims to hold a CASR industry session by August.

The Space Force put forward the idea of a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve in early 2023. It envisioned commercial space companies voluntarily providing a part of their capabilities to the Department of Defense to address urgent needs during crisis or war.

Kniseley noted that, for the first CASR contracts, the focus would mainly be space domain awareness. He expects the issuance of contracts containing special provisions for vendors that wish to become CASR companies.

“I expect it to be some really good learning, because we’ve never done this before,” the COMSO chief said.

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South32 to Help DOD Enhance Chemical Element Supply Chain; Anthony Di Stasio Quoted
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South32 to Help DOD Enhance Chemical Element Supply Chain; Anthony Di Stasio Quoted

South32 has secured a $20 million award from the Department of Defense to increase domestic production of a chemical element essential to developing both lithium-ion batteries and cobalt-based batteries.

The award made through the Defense Production Act Investment Program supports South32’s Hermosa Project, which aims to sustainably produce battery-grade manganese in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, the DOD said Friday.

South32 will become the first sustainable, domestic producer of battery-grade manganese once the project is completed. With the investment, the mining company is expected to provide the essential material used in batteries for defense and civilian applications two years earlier than planned.

The award is also aligned with the 2024 National Defense Industrial Strategy, which calls for continued and enhanced support for domestic production of materials to boost supply chain resilience.

“This first DPA award for manganese production is a big step towards reducing import dependency throughout the battery material supply chain,” said Anthony Di Stasio, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience.

Since the beginning of fiscal year 2024, the DPA investment program has allocated $356 million in total for 16 awards.

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Senate Bill to Streamline Tech Acquisition Processes Across Intelligence Community
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Senate Bill to Streamline Tech Acquisition Processes Across Intelligence Community

Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; John Cornyn, R-Tx.; and James Lankford, R-Ok., have introduced legislation that would streamline the acquisition of advanced technologies across the intelligence community.

The Enabling New Agile Buying-power and Leveraging Enhancements in Intelligence Community Acquisitions Act would create a fund to advance the transition of new products from research and development to production, giving priority to small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors, Kelly’s office said Friday.

The legislation would allow intelligence agencies to use streamlined acquisition processes and enhance existing authorities to facilitate partnerships within the commercial sector.

“By cutting unnecessary red tape, our bill provides new acquisition options, further drives national security innovation, and ensures the U.S. is always one step ahead,” Kelly said.

According to Warner, the bill would ensure that intelligence agencies are funded and have the flexibility they need to “acquire and integrate the most cutting-edge emerging technologies to protect our national security.”

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Brian Epley Selected to Succeed Andre Mendes as Commerce CIO
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Brian Epley Selected to Succeed Andre Mendes as Commerce CIO

Brian Epley, principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Energy, has been appointed CIO at the Department of Commerce, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

He will assume his new role on June 3 and succeed Andre Mendes, who stepped down from the position in January after 14 years of service in the federal government.

Epley has served as principal deputy CIO at DOE since September 2022 and has led several information technology initiatives across the department, including efforts to modernize its network and telecommunications infrastructure under the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract.

He also helped establish the DOE CIO Office’s strategic direction for IT modernization, cybersecurity and data usage.

Prior to joining DOE, Epley spent six years at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as deputy CIO and deputy assistant administrator for administration and resources management.

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Sharon Woods Named Director for J6 Endpoint Services & Global Service Center at DISA
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Sharon Woods Named Director for J6 Endpoint Services & Global Service Center at DISA

Sharon Woods, a senior executive leader with two decades of government experience, was named director for J6 Endpoint Services and Global Service Center at the Defense Information Systems Agency, according to her LinkedIn announcement.

She previously served as director for J9 Hosting and Compute at DISA, responsible for leading an enterprise service delivery organization with 2,000 staff and a nearly $1 billion budget, driving the development of cloud accelerators like DevSecOps and transforming the workforce to support both traditional data center and cloud capabilities.

In her new role, Woods will have oversight of the delivery of networking and endpoint services at all classification levels to the Department of Defense.

“This is a crucial mission, connecting the department’s globally dispersed workforce, from the Pentagon to the edge, with unified communications,” said Woods. “Incorporating my experience with cloud technology, I hope to drive modernization and propel J6 forward as the premier communications provider to the department.”

Her career also includes time serving as general counsel for the Defense Digital Service and attorney adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Notably, Woods spent almost a decade with the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of the Navy, assuming positions of increasing responsibility and culminating in the role of associate counsel at the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems.

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State, Education, Commerce Departments to Get Technology Modernization Fund Investments; Clare Martorana Quoted
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State, Education, Commerce Departments to Get Technology Modernization Fund Investments; Clare Martorana Quoted

The departments of State, Commerce and Education will receive investments under the Technology Modernization Fund to improve public services and strengthen cybersecurity.

The General Services Administration said Thursday the State Department will use $18.2 million in TMF funding to implement generative artificial intelligence tools to facilitate data processing and enable personnel to glean insights from data to support diplomacy missions worldwide.

The department will also receive $13.1 million in funds to implement a zero trust architecture model and accelerate the creation of a Consolidated Identity Trust as part of efforts to protect identity data and improve cybersecurity.

With $12 million in TMF funding, the Commerce Department’s National Weather Service will modernize weather.gov and its application programming interface.

The Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid will receive a $5.9 million TMF investment and will use it to enhance the “My Activity” feature on StudentAid.gov, improving the digital experience for millions of borrowers.

“As chair of both the TMF Board and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers Council, I’m thrilled to see our catalytic funding stream powering the use of AI and improving security at the State Department,” said Clare Martorana, chair of the TMF Board and federal chief information officer.

“I’m equally excited about the TMF’s two other critical investments – with students getting more modern access to manage their education journeys and the public gaining access to life-saving weather information in an accessible manner for all,” added Martorana, a previous Wash100 awardee.

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White House Introduces AI Principles for Developers, Employers
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White House Introduces AI Principles for Developers, Employers

The White House has unveiled a set of principles meant to guide the development and deployment of artificial intelligence tools in the workplace as part of efforts to protect and empower workers.

The Department of Labor developed the principles in accordance with the AI executive order released in October, according to a White House fact sheet published Thursday.

The eight principles are centering worker empowerment; ethically developing AI; establishing AI governance and human oversight; ensuring transparency in AI use; protecting labor and employment rights; using AI to enable workers; supporting workers impacted by AI; and ensuring responsible use of worker data.

AI developers and employers should consider the principles during the technology’s design, development, training, testing, deployment, adoption, auditing and oversight.

The White House said Microsoft and Indeed are among the tech companies that have committed to adopting the principles.

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