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HHS CIO Karl Mathias to Join NASA
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HHS CIO Karl Mathias to Join NASA

Karl Mathias, chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, will step down as CIO on Dec. 1 to assume an engineering role at NASA, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

In an email to employees obtained by FNN, Mathias mentioned some of the accomplishments of the CIO office in the past 20 months under his leadership, such as advancing a strategic direction for the department’s cybersecurity posture, creating a strategy for data management and evaluating acquisition packages “to ensure proper use of information technology.”

Prior to joining HHS in March 2022, Mathias was CIO of the U.S. Marshals Service. He is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who served as deputy head of the electrical engineering department at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Jennifer Wendel, deputy CIO at HHS and a 17-year FBI veteran, will take over as acting CIO until the department appoints a permanent replacement.

La Monte Yarborough, chief information security officer at HHS, will serve as the department’s deputy CIO on an interim basis, according to the report.

House Approves Bill to Keep Government Funded Past Saturday
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House Approves Bill to Keep Government Funded Past Saturday

The House of Representatives has passed a continuing resolution that aims to keep the U.S. government funded past 12:01 a.m. this coming Saturday through early 2024, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The CR features what has been described as “laddered” deadlines, providing funding for about 20 percent of the government — including military and veterans programs — through Jan. 19 and funding for the remaining 80 percent — including the Department of Defense — through Feb. 2.

The House approved the legislation under suspension of the rules to overcome opposition from some conservative Republican lawmakers who are calling for deep spending cuts.

Under the suspended rules, two-thirds of the House was required to pass the measure. The bill cleared the chamber via a 336-95 vote.

The CR will now be taken up by the Senate, with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the upper chamber would act on the legislation “as soon as possible.”

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Denton Gibson Assumes New Role Within NASA Launch Services Program
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Denton Gibson Assumes New Role Within NASA Launch Services Program

NASA has appointed Denton Gibson as launch director of the Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Program, which he has been a part of since 2004.

Gibson, who previously served as senior mission manager within LSP, succeeds former senior Launch Director Omar Baez, who recently retired, NASA said Monday.

In his new role, Gibson will work with senior Launch Director Tim Dunn in overseeing launches, including those for the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud ocean Ecosystem; Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U; and Europa Clipper missions.

Gibson holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Miami and a doctorate degree in systems engineering from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Regarding Gibson’s appointment, Dunn said, “His ability to ensure the readiness of spacecraft and rockets, as well as handling unique mission challenges that pop up, make him ready to lead the team on launch day.”

Amanda Mitskevich, the program manager of the Launch Services Program, said Gibson will lead a team responsible for “launching some of NASA’s most important and valuable missions.”

OMB to Begin MAX Community Transition to USDA Connect
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OMB to Begin MAX Community Transition to USDA Connect

The Office of Management and Budget is transitioning MAX system users to the Department of Agriculture Connect from Nov. 27 until Dec. 4, when the USDA site becomes the official repository for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s document storage and collaboration needs.

FedRAMP said Monday that MAX.gov users can still access their data but cannot upload new information on the website during the transition. Users can log into USDA Connect using their MAX user ID and password.

MAX.gov is a government-wide suite of authentication and collaboration tools and services designed to enable secure sharing of information and business intelligence among 200,000 users across 180 federal agencies.

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Janice Starzyk, Gabriel Swiney Take Leadership Roles at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce
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Janice Starzyk, Gabriel Swiney Take Leadership Roles at NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has appointed space industry veteran Janice Starzyk as deputy director of the Office of Space Commerce and space law practitioner Gabriel Swiney as head of OSC’s Space Advocacy Division.

Starzyk will bring decades of industry experience to the role as she oversees the operations of OSC with the guidance of Director Richard DalBello, NOAA said Thursday.

She previously served as an adviser at United Launch Alliance and held executive management roles at Virgin Orbit, Bryce Space and Technology, International Launch Services and Futron.

Swiney will lead a team which represents the Department of Commerce in space policy development and in talks with other countries over U.S. space commerce.

He is a lecturer at Harvard Law School who previously served as a staff attorney at the State Department and held senior policy roles at NASA.

DalBello said Starzyk and Swiney are space community leaders whose appointment will help the office execute its mission responsibilities and serve industry stakeholders.

OSC is also onboarding 20 full-time employees as authorized under the omnibus appropriations measure for fiscal year 2023.

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CISA Releases Updated Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit for Critical Infrastructure Sector
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CISA Releases Updated Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit for Critical Infrastructure Sector

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released the latest version of its Secure Tomorrow Series Toolkit, a set of interactive products to identify and mitigate emerging risks in the critical infrastructure, or CI, sector.

CISA said Monday the updated toolkit provides access to game templates, facilitator and player guides and other resource materials to help CI stakeholders self-facilitate and conduct scenarios workshops, matrix games, cross-impacts sessions and threat timelines activity.

These strategic foresight activities focus on six topic areas: anonymity and privacy; trust and social cohesion; data storage and transmission; brain-computer interfaces; synthetic biology; and quantum technologies.

CISA’s National Risk Management Center collaborated with subject matter experts from the private sector, academia and national laboratories to develop the first edition of the toolkit in 2022.

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House Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Limit US Government’s Access to China-Linked Blockchain Tech
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House Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Limit US Government’s Access to China-Linked Blockchain Tech

Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Zachary Nunn, R-Iowa, have proposed a bipartisan bill that seeks to protect national security by prohibiting the U.S. federal government from using blockchain network infrastructure and distributed ledger technology developed and owned by the Chinese Communist Party and other international competitors.

The proposed Creating Legal Accountability for Rogue Innovators and Technology, or CLARITY, Act would direct the federal government to take a coordinated approach to countering potential threats posed by adversarial threats to safeguard U.S. intellectual property and sensitive data, Spanberger’s office said Thursday.

The CLARITY Act would require the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State and the Treasury to submit a congressional report that addresses risks associated with adversarial technologies.

Spanberger said she is proud to join Nunn in introducing the CLARITY Act to protect the federal government from CCP-owned blockchain and counter China’s influence on the global economy.

“Our bipartisan bill ensures that the federal government is not giving China a backdoor to access critical national security intelligence and Americans’ private information,” Nunn said.

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LANL Leads Formation of Open-Source, Cloud-Native Community for Supercomputing Management
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LANL Leads Formation of Open-Source, Cloud-Native Community for Supercomputing Management

Los Alamos National Laboratory launched the Open, Composable, Heterogeneous, Adaptable, Management Infrastructure, a.k.a. OCHAMI, a virtual community to improve the management of complex and scalable computing environments.

LANL revealed Tuesday that it formed the open-source community with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

OCHAMI members will share ideas on the architectural direction of the infrastructure, which was modeled in part after the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The group’s paradigm is designed to ensure agility despite errors and bolster innovation in systems management.

“Open standards are imperative to driving innovation in supercomputing,” said Trish Damkroger, senior vice president and chief product officer of high performance computing, artificial intelligence and laboratories at HPE. “The HPC industry needs a modern, cloud-native data center infrastructure management interface with a simplified user experience that supports legacy tools but is flexible enough to adapt to modern and future features.

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Marlan Macklin Named Deputy Principal Director for Future G at OUSD(R&E)
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Marlan Macklin Named Deputy Principal Director for Future G at OUSD(R&E)

Marlan Macklin, former chief of the communications and electronics division for the U.S. Mission to NATO, has been named deputy principal director for future G at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

He announced his new post Tuesday on LinkedIn and assumed the role after serving on a diplomatic assignment leading the USNATO division coordinating forums related to consultation, command and control capabilities and enabling technologies.

Before that, Macklin was lead for installations, acquisition and logistics and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment representative on the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 Task Force.

He previously oversaw the Pentagon’s armaments cooperation and acquisition activities with international partners in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East as country programs manager at OUSD(A&S).

Macklin was also the regional desk officer for Asia Pacific and the Middle East for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation.

OMB’s OIRA Issues Revised Guidance on Regulatory Analysis
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OMB’s OIRA Issues Revised Guidance on Regulatory Analysis

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget has released its updated guidance designed to help government agencies analyze the impacts of their regulatory actions using the latest economic and scientific advances and knowledge.

The revised governmentwide Circular A-4 was issued in accordance with an executive order signed in April to modernize the U.S. regulatory review system, the White House said Thursday.

The updated Circular A-4 contains revisions related to discounting, distributional analysis, the spatial scope of analysis and non-monetized effects.

According to OIRA, the revised guidance document seeks to enable agencies to determine the distributional effects of regulations and recognize the importance of distributional analysis in improving estimates of a regulation’s costs and benefits.

OIRA noted that the updated circular marks its commitment to “ensuring that benefit-cost analysis keeps pace with the best understanding of economics and science.”

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