HHS Creates Office of Long COVID Research & Practice; Xavier Becerra Quoted
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HHS Creates Office of Long COVID Research & Practice; Xavier Becerra Quoted

The Department of Health and Human Services launched a new division focused on the long-term effects of COVID-19, directing its efforts to combat and respond to the condition.

HHS on Monday unveiled the new Office of Long COVID Research and Practice, which will be led by HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Adm. Rachel Levine.

The unit will oversee the government-wide coordinated response to Long COVID, as well as the implementation of the national research action plan and support services to address the condition.

The establishment of the new office comes two years after the National Institutes of Health began the $1.15 billion RECOVER initiative. The program, which has so far enrolled 24,000 patients, aims to investigate and find prevention and treatment approaches to post-coronavirus complications.

“As our nation continues to make strides in combating COVID-19, it is crucial that we address the impact of Long COVID and provide resources to those in need,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra remarked. “The Official establishment of the Long COVID Coordinating office and the launch of the RECOVER clinical trials solidifies this issue as an ongoing priority,” added Becerra, a Wash100 awardee.

DOE to Lease Federal Land for Clean Energy Power Plants in New Initiative; Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE to Lease Federal Land for Clean Energy Power Plants in New Initiative; Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy has commenced an initiative to repurpose lands owned by the agency into clean energy generation sites.

DOE on Friday began the Cleanup to Clean Energy effort, which involves collaborating with government, industry and tribal community officials to lease federal land for utility-scale renewable power projects.

The agency identified five sites to be assessed for the initiative, including the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, which used to be a nuclear production facility. The Idaho National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Water Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico are also in the list.

“DOE will leverage areas that were previously used to protect our national security and will repurpose them to the same end—this time, generating clean energy that will help save the planet and protect our energy independence,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm commented.

Department of Transportation Unveils New Center to Accelerate Infrastructure Development Projects
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Department of Transportation Unveils New Center to Accelerate Infrastructure Development Projects

The Department of Transportation has unveiled the Project Delivery Center of Excellence at the Volpe Center to simplify the contracting process for transportation and infrastructure development and improvement projects.

The new center aims to provide newer grant recipients with an off-the-shelf model for ensuring consistency and quality in design and construction contracts and cultivate a central repository of national best practices for project development, project delivery and cost containment efforts, USDOT said Monday.

Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser to President Biden and White House infrastructure coordinator, said the Project Delivery Center of Excellence will be key to enabling the exchanging of ideas, knowledge and best practices to continue to improve the U.S. transportation system.

Initial plans for the center also include hosting webinars and training to facilitate peer-to-peer information exchange to share best project delivery methods and practices.

The American Society of Civil Engineers and Association of Consulting Engineering Companies will work with the center to create and disseminate templates and model language for transportation construction contracts.

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Army Working to Help Commanders Make Decisions With AI-Enabled Social Media Tech
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Army Working to Help Commanders Make Decisions With AI-Enabled Social Media Tech

The U.S. Army has begun testing an artificial intelligence-enabled social media technology, dubbed Data Robot, to assess how the tool could aid commanders in their decision-making process, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

Data Robot was one of the 17 technologies tested by soldiers during the Cyber Quest experiment led by the Army Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon in Georgia.

Col. John Agnello, director of the Army’s program officer for information advantage, said the AI-based social media tool can detect deep-fake algorithms and bots using open-source data.

Col. Brett Riddle, director of the Army’s cyber battle lab, noted that Data Robot could help create an “overlay” that could enable commanders to make decisions.

“So what we asked Data Robot to do is… can you create that overlay for us using information from open source?” Riddle said.

“And can we use some military systems to help take that open source information and provide it onto a [Command Post Computing Environment] device or system? And we were able to successfully provide that overlay,” he added.

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Aeva Black Joins CISA as Open Source Security Lead
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Aeva Black Joins CISA as Open Source Security Lead

Cybersecurity professional Aeva Black has been appointed open source security lead at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Aeva brings to CISA over two decades of leadership experience and expertise in open source software within the private sector, Matt Hartman, deputy executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, wrote in a blog post published Monday.

Some of the open source projects Aeva has spearheaded are OmniBOR, previously called GitBOM, and OpenStack Ironic “Bare Metal.”

The Open Source Initiative board member joins CISA as the agency introduces a new initiative aimed at engaging with open source community organizations to promote security by design and default principles to further build up the security posture of open source software.

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IRS Names David Padrino Chief Transformation & Strategy Officer
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IRS Names David Padrino Chief Transformation & Strategy Officer

David Padrino, former chief transformation officer at the Office of Personnel Management, has joined the Internal Revenue Service as chief transformation and strategy officer responsible for overseeing Inflation Reduction Act-funded improvement programs.

He brings to the newly created role over two decades of experience holding leadership roles across local, state and federal governments and leading industry transformation efforts, IRS said Friday.

In his previous role, Padrino oversaw the implementation of an agency-wide transformation effort across the OPM.

Before that, he led the OPM Office of Human Capital Data Management and Modernization and served as the chief recovery officer for the Colorado Attorney General.

Padrino previously worked on more than 25 projects in 10 countries during his seven-year career at Boston Consulting Group.

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President Biden Keeps Space Command HQ in Colorado Springs
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President Biden Keeps Space Command HQ in Colorado Springs

President Biden has selected Colorado Springs as the permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command to maintain military readiness in the space domain.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, press secretary at the Department of Defense, said in a statement published Monday that Biden notified Pentagon of his decision following consultation with Defense Secretary and Wash100 awardee Lloyd Austin, as well as other senior military leaders.

Ryder said keeping the Space Command headquarters in Colorado would enable the command to integrate military space power into multi-domain operations to deter aggression and defend national security.

A report from The Hill said Biden’s decision reverses a Trump administration decision to relocate the temporary headquarters of Space Command to Alabama.

According to a senior administration official, the Space Command is set to achieve full operational capability later in August.

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Anthony Robbins, NVIDIA VP of Federal, Earns 2023 Wash100 & Accepts Award From Jim Garrettson
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Anthony Robbins, NVIDIA VP of Federal, Earns 2023 Wash100 & Accepts Award From Jim Garrettson

NVIDIA Vice President of Federal Anthony Robbins is now in his sixth year of receiving the prestigious Wash100 Award, the most highly respected honor in government contracting. Robbins convened with Executive Mosaic CEO and Wash100 founder Jim Garrettson in a delivery meeting at NVIDIA’s Herndon, Virginia office in July.

The Wash100 is made up of only the most accomplished change-makers in the GovCon sphere, which includes the federal government and the U.S. military. Among the winners over the course of the award’s decade-long history are agency directors, chief executives, generals and more. It recognizes individuals who EM’s voting body sees as the leaders of tomorrow; not just boasting an excellent track record, the committee believes that with these titans, the best is yet to come.

Robbins’ achievements across 2022 bode well for his 2023: a big believer in artificial intelligence, Robbins helped realize a partnership with Octo to bring AI services to the federal government. He also worked with Oracle, formulating a multiyear collaboration that plans to add and integrate a litany of computing tools to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Curious about Robbins’ Wash100-worthy career and contributions? Read his full profile here.

The executive’s backing of AI endeavors has seemingly paid off: in May of this year, the company’s revenues experienced a 28 percent increase largely in response to a valuation of its AI-related assets. NVIDIA demonstrated a record high stock price of $391.50.

Executive Mosaic extends its heartiest congratulations to Anthony Robbins and the whole team at NVIDIA’s federal division. Keep up the great work!

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House Bipartisan Legislation Proposes to Categorize Space as Critical Infrastructure
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House Bipartisan Legislation Proposes to Categorize Space as Critical Infrastructure

Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Ken Calvert, R-Calif., led the introduction of a bill that would designate space products and services as critical infrastructure.

The lawmakers were joined on Thursday by Reps. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., in proposing the Space Infrastructure Act, which would place the sector under the protection of the Department of Homeland Security.

The inclusion of space among the critical sectors of infrastructure will help consolidate the collection and analysis of threat and security information, which are currently gathered separately from the 16 vital U.S. industries.

“Space is infrastructure,” Lieu stated. “So many things we rely on, such as navigation systems, banking, and communications systems, function with the help of technology in space. Designating space as a critical infrastructure sector would help ensure the industry receives the attention and resources it needs, thereby strengthening our national security.”

Lieu and Calvert are co-chairs of the California Aerospace Caucus.

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White House Issues Board’s Review of FISA Section 702 Intelligence Collection Authority
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White House Issues Board’s Review of FISA Section 702 Intelligence Collection Authority

The White House has released an unclassified version of a review conducted by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702.

The PIAB report concludes that Section 702 is key to generating intelligence data needed to safeguard the U.S. from various threats, such as cyberattacks, terrorism, illegal export of critical technology and foreign influence on democracy.

“We agree with the unanimous conclusion reached by this group of independent, deeply experienced experts that failure to reauthorize Section 702 could be ‘one of the worst intelligence failures of our time,’” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, principal deputy national security adviser, said in a statement published Monday.

Sullivan and Finer stated that they agree with the board’s recommendation that the authority should be reauthorized without new damaging restrictions on assessing intelligence gathered by the government.

The report presents a list of 13 recommendations, such as directing the attorney general to remove FBI’s authority to perform queries for evidence of a non-national security-related crime in its Section 702 data and requiring the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a rigorous pre-approval standard that is consistent across all agencies for U.S. person content queries.

Other recommendations are establishing within the executive branch a centralized, independent review mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire compliance and oversight system on a regular basis and enhancing transparency by declassifying the certifications specifying the categories of authorized collection under Section 702, which is set to expire on Dec. 31.

“We look forward to reviewing the Board’s recommendations for how we can secure this critical national security authority and to working with Congress to ensure its reauthorization,” Finer and Sullivan noted.

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