The Securities and Exchange Commission is inviting members of the public to submit applications for appointment to an advisory committee that provides recommendations on regulations and policy matters related to small businesses.

Established by the SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016, the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee advises and consults with SEC on rules and policies relating to small business capital raising, trading and public reporting requirements, SEC said Friday.

Committee members include industry leaders, investors and advisers with experience working with early stage private businesses and small public companies.

The advisory group also includes the SEC’s Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation and non-voting members appointed by the Small Business Administration, SEC’s Investor Advocate and the North American Securities Administrators Association.

“I look forward to working with the members of the Committee to continue to uphold the SEC’s mandate to facilitate capital formation for companies of all sizes, while ensuring investors are adequately protected,” said Gary Gensler, chairman of SEC.

Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, has underscored the importance of upgrading the infrastructure at AFRL sites across the U.S. to enhance science and technology capabilities for warfighters.

“Expanding, securing and upgrading the infrastructure at AFRL enhances our mission effectiveness while we pay close attention to its cost-effectiveness and sustainability,” Pringle said in a statement published Friday.

Among these projects are the installation of new equipment at AFRL’s Rocket Propulsion Division to advance the production of rocket components and the construction of a new gate and entry point at the Information Directorate in Rome, New York, to comply with the Department of the Air Force’s security requirements.

In November 2022, AFRL initiated the construction of a $4.5 million Facility for Radiation Tolerance Research on Electronics for Space and Strategic Systems at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The facility will operate as part of the Space Vehicles Directorate, which develops new technologies and capabilities for space missions.

AFRL also unveiled a new Advanced Munitions Technology Complex at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, that will support the development of next-generation weapon systems for the U.S.

The Social Security Administration intends to launch a new IT strategic plan that prioritizes customer-centric and data-driven initiatives, according to the agency’s information and data officials. 

In an interview with Federal News Network, SSA Deputy Chief Information Officer Patrick Newbold and Chief Data Officer Rob King discussed how they are collaborating to bolster information availability, quality, security and usability based on progress from their strategy over the past 5 years.

Newbold stated that the new plan aims to digitize and reduce paper-based information and processing, and to improve employee experience by enhancing access to data needed to support their customers.

He added that the agency is looking into its applications programming interface platforms to optimize the use of both legacy and new systems. As part of their API-first strategy, SSA will expose data at the application level to expedite digital modernization.

King explained that they are analyzing information for an “apples-to-apples” comparison with the business community, stakeholders and policymakers.

“We’re defining our data with the metadata so we know where our data lives and on what systems. We know how it feeds business processes and then we can bring it together to have that ‘apples-to-apples’ data. Then we can put it into the various pipelines that we can then use to feed the digital strategy as well as advanced decision making and unified decision making and reporting,” King explained.