The General Services Administration and the U.S. Access Board have begun drafting questions for the fiscal 2024 government-wide Section 508 assessment to evaluate agencies’ use of information and communication technology systems accessible to people with disabilities, Federal News Network reported Friday.

Kristen Smith-O’Connor, senior ICT specialist within the Government-wide IT Accessibility Program at GSA, expects some questions to be tweaked and refined to be more straight-to-the-point and avoid misunderstanding.

“We expect minor changes, at this point, to the questions. What exactly will they be, we are still working on. There’s a very small and very collaborative group of us working on it. I wouldn’t expect anything drastic to change. But we are refining and honing,” Smith-O’Connor said.

GSA and the Access Board are also working to expand Section 508 certifications and training under a recent Office of Management and Budget memorandum.

“Simply put, Section 508 Programs that don’t have sufficient staff can’t perform adequate Section 508 work,” a previous GSA assessment states.

The White House has urged Congress to approve a bipartisan agreement that seeks to address national security concerns.

The national security agreement would establish a temporary border emergency authority to enable the U.S. president and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily prevent individuals from seeking asylum in the event that the southwest border is overwhelmed, the White House said Sunday.

The measure would recalibrate the asylum screening process by modifying the screening asylum threshold from “significant possibility” to “reasonable possibility” and moving consideration of statutory bars to asylum eligibility into the screening stage.

Other provisions in the proposed legislation are establishing an efficient process for considering asylum and other protection claims; providing critical funding for countering drug trafficking and smuggling, asylum processing and border security; and strengthening federal law against fentanyl trafficking.

The bipartisan agreement includes providing military aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, investing in the defense industrial base to support U.S. jobs and offering resources to help allies in the Indo-Pacific region to develop the capabilities needed to counter threats from China and other emerging issues.

The Department of Commerce CHIPS Research and Development Office expressed its intention to launch a research funding opportunity focused on boosting U.S. manufacturing capacity for advanced packaging substrates and their materials.

The potential five-year, $300 million project is inviting interested applicants to submit preliminary information to qualify for the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology said in a notice posted Friday on Federal Register.

NAPMP’s newest project is centered on studies that can significantly impact the production of semiconductor-based substrates, glass materials and substrates, and organic materials and substrates used in advanced packaging.

The notice of funding opportunity will be open to U.S. and foreign organizations, federally funded research and development centers and collaborative teams.