The departments of Energy and Health and Human Services have partnered to develop a digital subscription platform designed to make solar energy more accessible to households participating in government-run low-income assistance programs.

The Community Solar Subscription Platform is intended to help Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program recipients reduce electricity bills by subscribing to verified cost-saving solar projects, DOE said Wednesday.

The tool will support the DOE National Community Solar Partnership’s goal of using solar energy systems to power 5 million households and provide 20 percent savings on a subscriber’s energy bills.

“Every American community, especially those that face disproportionately higher energy burdens, deserves the economic and health benefits that come with increased access to affordable clean energy,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. will participate in the initial pilot development and provide feedback and data to test platform security, performance and operability.

DOE is also requesting feedback from state and local governments, community solar subscription managers and developers and other industry partners on the structure of the platform.

A bill introduced in the Senate would require the Office of Management and Budget to coordinate with federal acquisition professionals to identify strategies that can help simplify how agencies buy commercial technology and address barriers to entry that exist within the government contracting space.

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, jointly sponsored the AGILE Procurement Act as agencies are increasingly investing in new platforms such as cloud, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, the Senate Homeland Security Committee said Thursday.

The bipartisan legislation would expand a pilot Department of Defense incentive program for 100 percent employee-owned contractors for governmentwide implementation.

Under the bill, OMB and the General Services Administration must also collaborate to offer acquisition training that will center around information and communications technology.

The bill also calls for the creation of a pilot program intended to encourage private sector employees, veterans and military spouses to serve in federal procurement positions.

Berkeley Lab and Resource Innovations have partnered to modernize an online tool designed to estimate the economic costs of power interruptions in support of utilities, policymakers and other stakeholders looking to enhance the U.S. power system’s reliability and resilience.

The public-private partnership will survey customers of sponsoring utilities, analyze the responses and use that data to fully update and upgrade the publicly available Interruption Cost Estimate Calculator.

The tool currently uses information from over 100,000 U.S. customer responses from 34 utility-sponsored surveys dated from 1989 and 2012. The planned updates will draw data from clients of American Electric Power, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, DTE Energy, Exelon and National Grid, among other sponsoring utilities.

“The ICE Calculator is an important tool that electric companies can utilize as they work with regulators and policymakers to plan the investments needed to provide affordable, reliable, secure and resilient clean electricity to customers,” said Phil Moeller, executive vice president of the business operations group and regulatory affairs at EEI.

He added that modernizing ICE Calculator would help stakeholders conduct better assess,ents of the benefits of energy grid resilience investments.

The tool’s initial development was funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.

The General Services Administration has informed small businesses that it will continue to accept final proposals for a governmentwide information technology procurement vehicle through Aug. 19.

GSA announced on SAM.gov the nine-day bid deadline extension for its Polaris contract, which comprises small business and women-owned small business pools.

The agency first issued solicitations March 25 and paused the request for proposals April 6 due to industry feedback on joint venture assessments under the new IT acquisition program.

GSA restarted at the end of June the bidding process with an Aug, 10 due date.

Federal agencies can acquire commercial offerings in various areas such as cloud computing, data management and cybersecurity through Polaris once the program is ready for business.

The Senate on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that aims to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reestablish the United States as a competitor in the intensifying microelectronics race.

The $280 billion “CHIPS and Science Act,” which passed in a 64-33 vote, would provide $52 billion in subsidies to U.S. semiconductor chip manufacturers and incentivize the construction of new fabrication plants across the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, President Biden said of the CHIPS Act, “It will accelerate the manufacturing of semiconductors in America, lowering prices on everything from cars to dishwashers. It also will create jobs – good-paying jobs right here in the United States.”

The bill also includes funding that would establish regional technology hubs, support start-up programs and expand the work of the National Science Foundation.

Semiconductor chips power a myriad of consumer electronics from cell phones to automobiles to Internet of Things-connected appliances. Importantly, they are also critical to most military weapons, systems and capabilities. These chips also lay the foundation for advancements in areas like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, which have been identified by the Department of Defense as critical technologies.

However, supply chain challenges, a sharp uptick in demand for consumer electronics and a decline in manufacturing have resulted in a global shortage of semiconductor chips.

The urgency behind passing the CHIPS Act also stems from national security concerns. In recent decades, the U.S. share of global semiconductor manufacturing output has dropped from 40 percent to 12 percent since 1990, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Today, the U.S. relies heavily on Taiwan for its semiconductor chips.

Lawmakers expect that passing the CHIPS Act will help to decrease reliance on overseas manufacturers and reestablish the United States’ competitive advantage in what is becoming a cornerstone industry for national and economic security.

Biden said the CHIPS Act “will mean more resilient American supply chains, so we are never so reliant on foreign countries for the critical technologies that we need for American consumers and national security.”

The CHIPS Act will now move to the House for a vote. Lawmakers hope to pass the bill before the Congressional recess in early August.