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IRS Eyes Workforce Expansion for IT Modernization; CIO Nancy Sieger Quoted
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IRS Eyes Workforce Expansion for IT Modernization; CIO Nancy Sieger Quoted

The Internal Revenue Service intends to grow its technology workforce by 200 people in support of the agency’s modernization efforts.

IRS said Wednesday that it sees modern technology as the means to streamline taxpayer experience, reduce current inventories and respond to as many queries as possible.

The planned workforce expansion is part of a larger hiring effort at the agency, which also recently announced plans to fill over 5,000 processing center positions in Missouri, Utah and Texas.

“This is an excellent opportunity to join the IRS Information Technology team and make a real difference for our tax system and the nation’s taxpayers,” said Nancy Sieger, chief information officer at IRS.

Open IRS jobs include positions for entry-level, experienced and supervisory IT practitioners.

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NIST Report Calls on Developers to Address Human, Systemic Biases in AI
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NIST Report Calls on Developers to Address Human, Systemic Biases in AI

A National Institute of Standards and Technology report suggests that teams working on artificial intelligence platforms and looking to manage the harmful effects of AI bias should not only address data, machine learning processes and other computational factors but also systemic and human biases in AI.

“If we are to develop trustworthy AI systems, we need to consider all the factors that can chip away at the public’s trust in AI,” Reva Schwartz, principal investigator for AI bias and one of the authors of the NIST report, said in a statement published Wednesday.

Authors of the NIST Special Publication 1270 Towards a Standard for Identifying and Managing Bias in Artificial Intelligence discussed how human and systemic biases can harm individuals, including the potential discrimination of people based on their race.

NIST researchers proposed the adoption of a “socio-technical” approach to help address bias in AI.

“Organizations often default to overly technical solutions for AI bias issues,” Schwartz said. “But these approaches do not adequately capture the societal impact of AI systems. The expansion of AI into many aspects of public life requires extending our view to consider AI within the larger social system in which it operates.”

NIST will host a three-day public workshop to seek insights as it works on the AI Risk Management Framework and address issues with regard to harmful bias in AI. The workshop will kick off on March 29.

POC - 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit

The Potomac Officers Club will host the 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit this spring. Visit the POC Events page to sign up for the upcoming forum and view POC’s full calendar.

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Congressional Defense Panels Name 8 Members to Strategic Posture Commission
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Congressional Defense Panels Name 8 Members to Strategic Posture Commission

Leaders of House and Senate Armed Services Committees have named eight government, industry and academic experts to a 12-member commission that will review the U.S. strategic posture and nuclear weapons policy and assess threats facing the country.

The Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States should submit its final report to the executive branch and Congress by Dec. 31, in accordance with the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate panel said Wednesday.

The new members of the commission include Madelyn Creedon, research professor of international affairs and chair of the nuclear security working group at the George Washington University; John Hyten, a retired U.S. Air Force general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rose Gottemoeller, Steven C. Hazy lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and Leonor Tomero, former deputy assistant secretary for nuclear and missile defense policy at the Department of Defense.

Other appointees to the commission are Jon Kyl, former senator and congressman; Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, director for strategic programs at Westinghouse Government Services; and Hudson Institute Senior Fellows Rebeccah Heinrichs and Marshall Billingslea.

SASC Chairman Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., selected Creedon and Hyten and Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., appointed Kyl and Gordon-Hagerty to the commission. HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Calif., selected Gottemoeller and Tomero, while and HASC Ranking Member Mike Rogers, R-Ala., named Billingslea and Heinrichs to the panel.

Rogers and Hyten are previous Wash100 Award recipients.

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DOD to Transfer $800M Worth of Arms to Ukraine; Gen. Lloyd Austin Quoted
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DOD to Transfer $800M Worth of Arms to Ukraine; Gen. Lloyd Austin Quoted

President Biden signed an order that directs the U.S. Department of Defense to facilitate the transfer of arms and other equipment worth approximately $800 million to Ukraine’s military in response to Russian invasion, DOD News reported Wednesday.

The package includes 100 tactical unmanned aerial systems; 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems; 2,000 Javelin; 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems; 1,000 light anti-armor weapons; 100 grenade launchers; 5,000 rifles; 1,000 pistols; 400 shotguns; and 400 machine guns.

DOD will also transfer to Ukrainian forces over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, mortar rounds and grenade launchers, 25,000 helmets and 25,000 body armor sets.

Lloyd Austin, secretary of DOD and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said the Pentagon will expedite the transfer of capabilities to Ukraine.

“Today’s drawdown, valued at up to $800 million, brings [the total] to more than $2 billion [in] U.S. security assistance commitment since the beginning of the administration,” said Austin.

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Deltek Unveils New Edition of Costpoint Program, Sees SMB Growth in 2021; CPO Warren Linscott Quoted
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Deltek Unveils New Edition of Costpoint Program, Sees SMB Growth in 2021; CPO Warren Linscott Quoted

Deltek, the Herndon, Virginia-based software company, has released a new version of its popular government contract lifecycle program Costpoint in response to customer feedback.

On Tuesday, the company outlined the contributing factors to its growth in 2021, including a surge in sales among small business clients and a widespread embrace of the aforementioned program.

“For nearly forty years, Deltek has been rooted in government contracting – and no one knows the industry better than our deep bench of experts. Our customers have trusted our solutions as the gold standard that helps them power their project success,” said Warren Linscott, Deltek chief product officer.

The software producer said 2021 brought an almost 20 percent increase in transactions from small and medium businesses, among which Costpoint deals alone made up almost a third.

The program is an enterprise resource planning program that helps users execute government contract projects of any size from inception to completion. Costpoint attempts to maximize profitability as well as ensures security and privacy for sensitive materials in adherence to regulations and compliance requirements.

Deltek received positive feedback from Costpoint users on peer review platforms. The latest 8.1 version of the platform has been crafted with customers’ needs in mind. It includes pre-contract award automation of certain services, a more time-sensitive interface for various functions and a simplified layout.

The new edition also features a linkage to another program, Deltek Talent Management and an ability to enable those responsible for procurement and manufacturing to complete their tasks from a single output.

“As we grow and evolve our business, we are continuing to invest in purposeful innovation to support government contractors’ need for speed, agility and competitive differentiation initiatives,” Linscott added.

Based on collected surveys of 60,000 employees from a range of companies, Deltek was recently named one of Forbes’ America’s Best Employers in 2022.

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Navy, Marine Corps Worked on Manned-Unmanned Helicopter Teaming During Recent Training Over California
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Navy, Marine Corps Worked on Manned-Unmanned Helicopter Teaming During Recent Training Over California

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps trained with rotary-wing aircraft to develop manned-unmanned teaming tactics at Naval Air Facility El Centro in California on March 10.

During the event, sailors and marines used an unmanned MQ-8C Fire Scout to locate targets and manned UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper choppers to conduct effective fires, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

The event, joined by Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One and the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, aimed toward advancing the integration of USMC manned and unmanned helicopters with naval ships for littoral missions.

It also falls in line with the maned-unmanned teaming concepts outlined in the 2018 National Defense Strategy and the Commandant’s Planning Guide.

‘This opportunity promotes greater familiarization and concept development of the manned-unmanned teaming that builds confidence and efficiency throughout the Blue-Green Team,” explained Col. Byron Sullivan, commanding officer of VMX-1.

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Air Force Experiment on Hypersonic Boundary Layer Flight to Launch March 21
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Air Force Experiment on Hypersonic Boundary Layer Flight to Launch March 21

The U.S. Air Force is launching a flight experiment into space on Monday evening to study viscous drag and heating on hypersonic vehicles flying in the atmospheric boundary layer.

The two-stage suborbital rocket for the Boundary Layer Transition and Turbulence II experiment will take off at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Tuesday.

BOLT II will provide AFRL researchers with data on turbulent flow that heats up a vehicle’s surface during hypersonic flight, accomplishing the mission objectives failed by the previous BOLT I flight.

According to Sarah Popkin, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s program officer for high-speed aerodynamics, launching a tool into space is necessary because measuring boundary layer transition and turbulence is impossible on the ground.

“[Being] able to understand and predict the turbulence associated with the heating will help us design better hypersonic vehicles,” continued Popkin.

AFRL worked with the Department of Defense, Texas A&M University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, CUBRC and Australian Defence Science and Technology Group for BOLT II.

Federal and industry officials will talk more about partnerships between public and private organizations in developing weapons moving beyond the speed of sound at ExecutiveBiz’s virtual Emerging Technologies: Hypersonics Forum on April 19.

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CISA, FBI Issue Advisory on Addressing Russian Cyber Threat; Jen Easterly Quoted
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CISA, FBI Issue Advisory on Addressing Russian Cyber Threat; Jen Easterly Quoted

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI have jointly issued an advisory on how to mitigate Russian cyber threats that use the “PrintNightmare” vulnerability.

The advisory tackles state-sponsored Russian attacks that exploit the Windows-based vulnerability and default multifactor authentication protocols to illicitly access networks, CISA said Tuesday.

The PrintNightmare vulnerability, which is present in Windows’ print spooler, can allow cyber actors to remotely execute codes or escalate privilege. Russian actors illicitly accessed email accounts and cloud through the vulnerability in May 2021.

The actors used a misconfigured account with default MFA protocols to breach the targeted network.

CISA and the FBI now advise organizations to require and properly implement MFA, employ time-out and lock-out features, patch software, continuously monitor network logs and disable inactive accounts.

“This advisory demonstrates the imperative that organizations configure MFA properly to maximize effectiveness,” said Jen Easterly, director of CISA and a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient.

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White House Announces Execs to Lead President’s Management Agenda; Jason Miller Quoted
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White House Announces Execs to Lead President’s Management Agenda; Jason Miller Quoted

The White House has appointed nine government executives to lead the three priority areas under the President’s Management Agenda: workforce empowerment, federal services delivery and government business management.

These executives, known as priority area leads, will provide expertise and capabilities from their respective agencies to support the PMA mission, the Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday.

“I’m pleased to announce the leaders of each of the three PMA Priority Areas—who will serve as the key executives responsible for driving forward these three priorities across the federal government,” said Jason Miller, OMB’s deputy director for management.

The appointed executives and their respective priority areas are:

Priority Area 1 – Strengthening and Empowering the Workforce

  • Julie Su, deputy secretary of the Department of Labor
  • Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of Department of Defense
  • Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management
     

Priority Area 2 – Delivering Excellent, Equitable and Secure Federal Services and Customer Experience

  • Donald Remy, deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs
  • Jewel Bronaugh, deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture
  • Robin Carnahan, administrator of the General Services Administration

 

Priority Area 3 – Managing the Business of Government to Build Back Better

  • Andrea Palm, deputy secretary of Health and Human Services
  • Don Graves, deputy secretary of Commerce
  • John Tien, deputy secretary of Homeland Security
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Acting OMB Director Shalanda Young Confirmed for Full-Time Role; Rosa DeLauro Quoted
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Acting OMB Director Shalanda Young Confirmed for Full-Time Role; Rosa DeLauro Quoted

Shalanda Young, formerly staff director of the House Committee on Appropriations, has been confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the committee, said in a statement posted Tuesday that Young has helped the committee shape many efforts that address challenges faced by working families.

“I am grateful for her partnership in enacting the federal spending package signed into law today and look forward to all that we will accomplish in the coming years,” DeLauro said.

The White House announced President Biden’s nomination of Young for the OMB director role in November. She performed the OMB director’s duties on an acting basis from March 2021.

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