The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Defense signed an agreement to improve information sharing and coordination over the CHIPS for America’s incentives program.

The memorandum of agreement aims to boost the country’s defense industrial base for semiconductors and advance the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Under the MOA’s terms, the two agencies will synchronize priorities and decision-making when it comes to semiconductor needs, as well as in investments to sustain legacy systems and acquire critical new technologies.

“This agreement will enable our teams to coordinate the national security review of applications, produce semiconductor chips in America that our military relies on, and bolster our domestic supply chain resiliency,” said Michael Schmidt, director of the CHIPS Program Office at the Department of Commerce.

The California School Boards Association, the California Association of School Business Officials and Carahsoft Technology have formed a partnership to facilitate the procurement of technology products and services by public schools in the state.

Local education agencies in California can acquire learning management systems, student safety and security, content management and data analytics, workforce readiness, multicloud, education funding services, internet of things and cybersecurity products and services through a streamlined process under the Golden State Technology Solutions partnership, Carahsoft said Wednesday.

Tim Boltz, director of EDUStrategy at Carahsoft, said the partnership contract executed by the company with CASBO and CSBA will meet the information technology needs of the TK-12 community and help simplify the process for California K-12 customers as they purchase cloud, software, hardware and other services to support faculty and students.

CASBO is a nonprofit organization serving over 24,000 school business professionals in California through education, professional development, advocacy and certification programs, while CSBA represents elected officials that oversee nearly 1,000 public school districts and county offices of education supporting nearly 6 million students in the state.

Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a Notice of Inquiry for her proposal to make broadband networks affordable and accessible to everyone in the country.

The updated notice calls for a higher fixed broadband standard, as well as a future national goal of 1 Gigabits per second for download and 500 Megabits per second for upload, the FCC announced Tuesday.

The proposal was drafted in compliance with Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, as well as requirements under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The 25/3 Mbps download/upload standard, which has not been updated since 2015, will increase to 100/20 Mbps if FCC’s recommendation is approved.

“In today’s world, everyone needs access to affordable, high-speed internet, no exceptions,” Rosenworcel commented. “It’s time to connect everyone, everywhere. Anything short of 100% is just not good enough.”

Michael Bloomberg, chair of the Department of Defense Innovation Board, said that DOD is lagging behind the private sector in the technology race because of its antiquated acquisition system.

In an opinion piece published Tuesday on Defense News, Bloomberg noted that the government must learn from commercial companies’ practices in order to advance to the forefront of technological innovation.

The former New York City mayor highlighted the private sector’s “fail fast” principle, a trial-and-error approach to newly developed ideas in order to quickly determine if they should be pursued or reevaluated from the beginning.

He also mentioned a proposed bill entitled “Rapid Response to Emergent Technology Advancements or Threats,” which would authorize the secretaries of the different military branches to acquire new capabilities as needed, even before Congress approves a final budget.

Bloomberg called for the expansion of spending authority to DOD acquisition officials, asserting that they should be given more flexibility in procuring state-of-the-art equipment and technology at a faster pace, before the products become obsolete.