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Idaho National Laboratory Gets $150M in Funding to Boost Nuclear R&D
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Idaho National Laboratory Gets $150M in Funding to Boost Nuclear R&D

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory will receive $150 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to support infrastructure improvement projects at its Advanced Test Reactor and Materials Fuels Complex.

DOE said Tuesday the investment aims to speed up the replacement of aging systems at ATR and MFC and support research and development efforts to advance nuclear fuels and reactor technologies.

The upgrades at the two facilities will include improvements to process control systems and water and electricity distribution systems.

“More than 300 commercial reactors operating around the world today can trace their roots back to Idaho National Laboratory, and these infrastructure investments allow America to continue leading the world in groundbreaking nuclear energy research and development,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The Inflation Reduction Act has allocated more than $35 billion for DOE to fund new and existing programs and included $150 million to boost R&D infrastructure at the Office of Nuclear Energy.

“Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, DOE is taking critical steps to strengthen domestic nuclear development and deployment—helping ensure the United States is on track to reach a clean energy future,” Granholm said.

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Cyber AB’s New Unit Launches Official Certified CMMC Professional Examination
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Cyber AB’s New Unit Launches Official Certified CMMC Professional Examination

The Cybersecurity Assessor and Instructor Certification Organization, a newly launched unit of the Cyber AB, has launched an official examination to verify assessors’ knowledge of the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.

The Certified CMMC Professional examination is aimed at ensuring that certified assessors are qualified and ready to support certified third-party assessment organizations that will evaluate defense contractors’ compliance with the cybersecurity standards, the Cyber AB said Tuesday.

“With the launch of the official CCP exam, we are validating that those individuals who achieve the CCP certification have a standard and consistent working knowledge of CMMC as a whole and how it is implemented in the context of assessments,” said Kyle Gingrich, interim executive director of CAICO.

The organization held a beta exam from August through September to assess how well test items can validate the knowledge a candidate must demonstrate to secure certification.

CAICO was launched in September and functions as an independent legal entity that provides training, professional exams and certification of CMMC instructors and assessors.

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Lisa Rosenmerkel Named VA Acting Chief Data Officer, Executive Director
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Lisa Rosenmerkel Named VA Acting Chief Data Officer, Executive Director

Lisa Rosenmerkel, a two-decade veteran of the Department of the Treasury, has been named acting chief data officer and executive director of the Office of Data Governance at the Department of Veteran Affairs.

In a LinkedIn post, Rosenmerkel shared she initially joined VA as deputy chief data officer and deputy executive director for data governance and analytics after serving as special assistant to the assistant secretary at Treasury’s Office of Economic Policy.

Rosenmerkel previously held various roles of increasing responsibility during her 18-year career at the Internal Revenue Service, including as chief of data modeling and optimization and associate director of the data management division.

She will succeed Kshemendra Paul who is leaving the department in November to serve as assistant inspector general for cybersecurity assessments and data analysis at the Department of Energy, according to a report from Federal News Network.

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Lt. Gen. John Shaw on Deep Space Exploration
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Lt. Gen. John Shaw on Deep Space Exploration

Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, participated in a panel discussion on Monday at a conference in Las Vegas and talked about deep space and the security challenges facing deep space exploration, the Space Force said Tuesday.

“I think there will always be national security needs,” Shaw said.

“That automatically means that there is a security issue facing commercial companies that we need to be thinking through in the future as we enter a potential crisis or conflict,” he added.

Shaw highlighted the need to implement guiding principles to advance a more sustainable and safer space domain.

“I would like to see this idea of cooperative ‘norms of behavior’ that support all of the sectors, the commercial, the civil and the national security, again, to be something that we can share across the globe,” he noted.

He also cited the importance of collaboration in addressing security issues in the space domain and the role of the commercial sector in advancing deep space exploration.

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Rick Spinrad: New NOAA Investments to Support Climate Change, Resiliency Research
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Rick Spinrad: New NOAA Investments to Support Climate Change, Resiliency Research

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is allocating $15.2 million this year for new research on climate-related topics as the government aims to help U.S. communities become more resilient to extreme weather phenomena.

Sixty-three projects involving universities, research institutions and public agencies in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will receive the funds through NOAA’s Climate Program Office, the agency said Tuesday.

The awardees will team up with NOAA programs, research laboratories and centers, and may receive financial support from the agency for three to five years.

Studies will focus on topics such as wildfire pollutants in urban-to-wilderness transition zones, drought management and resilience in tribal nations and creating atmospheric simulations of aerosols, which are elemental to a proposed global dimming method.

Rick Spinrad, administrator of NOAA, said climate is a top priority for the agency and the Department of Commerce.

“These new NOAA investments are essential to improve understanding of climate change, how to mitigate increasing impacts and bolster community resilience. All of these substantive steps work together towards our goal of building a Climate-Ready Nation,” he added.

CPO has been investing in climate science since 2016, mostly in the state of Colorado, which has received a total of $29.1 million for at least 51 projects in the past six years.

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Reports: Drew Myklegard Appointed Full-Time Deputy Federal CIO
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Reports: Drew Myklegard Appointed Full-Time Deputy Federal CIO

The Office of Management and Budget has appointed Drew Myklegard as deputy federal chief information officer, a role he has held on an acting basis since April, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

OMB started its search for an individual to take the full-time position in March, when Maria Roat retired after more than four decades of federal service.

Myklegard initially held an associate role at the OMB Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer and before that position he spent more than eight years at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

While at the VA, he oversaw a division focused on DevSecOps product engineering, software as a service and platform as a service and digital transformation initiatives.

He also served at the Army National Guard as an intelligence analyst and strategic planner and worked for Booz Allen Hamilton as an associate.

According to a Federal News Network report, Myklegard is the sixth official to hold the deputy federal CIO post and will coordinate with CIOs at federal agencies to drive enterprise initiatives across the government.

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Lawmakers Launch Inquiry Over Revolving Door Between Financial Regulators, Crypto Firms
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Lawmakers Launch Inquiry Over Revolving Door Between Financial Regulators, Crypto Firms

A group of Senate and House lawmakers wrote a letter to several financial regulatory agencies to seek information about the efforts of their institutions to stop the movement of officials between government agencies and the cryptocurrency industry.

“According to the Tech Transparency Project, over 200 government officials have moved between public service and crypto firms, serving as advisers, board members, investors, lobbyists, legal counsel, or in-house executives,” the legislators wrote in the letter dated Monday.

The letter was addressed to the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The lawmakers asked each financial regulator about their agency’s ethics guidelines and transparency rules to ensure the integrity of the rulemaking process and agency officials and challenges facing their organization when it comes to enforcing and strengthening ethics requirements around revolving door hires.

Regulators should submit their responses by Nov. 7.

The letter was signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

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Air Force Unveils New Schedule for Small Business Research Open Topic Solicitations
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Air Force Unveils New Schedule for Small Business Research Open Topic Solicitations

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s technology directorate AFWERX is introducing a repeatable annual cycle for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer open topic solicitations in fiscal year 2023 to further encourage small companies to participate in the service’s research and development efforts.

“This change allows AFWERX to execute contracts with rapid timelines to award, while providing industry and government a consistent, repeatable and predictable annual schedule,” said Maj. Amanda Rebhi, AFVentures division chief.

Under the new annual cycle, AFWERX AFVentures will provide small businesses two Phase I opportunities with follow-on Phase II and two D2P2 or Direct to Phase II opportunities, AFRL said Tuesday.

The first D2P2 open topic solicitation kicked off Tuesday, Oct. 25, and will run through Nov. 22. Solicitations for Phase I will be conducted every January and August and D2P2 solicitations will occur every March and October.

“The DAF Open Topic Program is targeting a 90-day timeline from proposal submission to award, while creating a more robust program that aims to better deliver cutting-edge technologies and capabilities to our Airmen and Guardians,” added Rebhi.

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Leidos Secures $55M TSA Hazmat Services Contract; Eric Freeman Quoted
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Leidos Secures $55M TSA Hazmat Services Contract; Eric Freeman Quoted

Science and technology company Leidos has been granted a potential five-year, $55 million contract from the Transportation Security Administration to conduct waste facilitation services.

The follow-on contract tasks Leidos with providing hazardous materials management and disposal services at over 430 federal airports across the U.S. and its territories, the Reston, Virginia-based organization announced on Tuesday.

“We are proud to continue performing this important work while protecting our nation’s transportation systems and the traveling public,” Leidos Senior Vice President and Integrated Missions Operations Manager Eric Freeman remarked.

Freeman additionally emphasized the longstanding relationship between the company and the TSA.

The contracted work will entail the company maintaining federal, state and local standards to impact management, movement and disposal of these materials. The Leidos team will provide compliance assistance visits of airport operations, develop standardized operating methods, and will execute regular audits of treatment, storage and disposal facilities.

Leidos will also guide TSA in the use of the company’s online recording system, HazOUT, and assist with the creation and implementation of their training plan.

This agreement follows a previous five-year contract that was granted in 2017. The terms of the previous contract are similar to the newly offered edition.

The new TSA award comes on the heels of Leidos’ Department of Defense award in early October. Valued at $1.5 billion, the task order calls for Leidos to assist with developing and implementing new command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools.

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FAA Releases Updated Guidance for Recreational Drone Flying
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FAA Releases Updated Guidance for Recreational Drone Flying

The Federal Aviation Administration has released updated guidance intended for the recognition of community-based organizations authorized to provide safety guidelines for the recreational operation of unmanned aircraft.

FAA said Monday recreational drone operators are required under law to follow comprehensive safety guidelines set by CBOs recognized by the agency.

The safety standard must be developed in coordination with FAA and can be customized to a particular drone type.

The advisory circular listed recommended recreational drone flying safety requirements that CBO applicants may consider when requesting FAA recognition.

The guidance defines a CBO as a membership-based association entity that “provides a comprehensive set of safety guidelines for all aspects of model aviation addressing the assembly and operation of model aircraft and that emphasize safe aeromodelling operations within the national airspace system.”

The updated document also provides information on drone operations for certain educational and research purposes and applications for recreational flying fixed sites.

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