The Department of Defense’s (DOD) office of inspector general (OIG) conducted an audit of DOD's use of the middle tier of acquisition (MTA) pathway and found that acquisition personnel employed the MTA approach for 11 reviewed programs in accordance with the department's guidance to rapidly build and deploy technologies to meet the needs of warfighters.

The OIG said in a Sept. 28th report that the use of MTA pathways helped streamline acquisition processes and accelerate prototyping and fielding efforts, leading to increased effectiveness and efficiencies.

There are two MTA types and the first is the Rapid Prototyping Pathway, which focuses on innovative tech platforms to accelerate the development of fieldable prototypes to address emerging military requirements. The Rapid Fielding Pathway deals with proven systems to deploy production quantities of updated or new platforms.

The inspector general also found that acquisition executives at DOD backed the use of MTA pathways, while program managers and program management offices employed the flexibilities that MTA pathways offer.

According to the report, DOD components had 69 programs using MTA pathways valued at approximately $31.1 billion as of Sept. 30, 2020. Of those programs, 56 are rapid prototyping initiatives and the rest are using the Rapid Fielding Pathway.

“Because the MTA programs are still in the early stages of execution and DoD acquisition reform remains a work in progress, the DoD must continue to balance management and oversight of these programs with the risk involved to ensure the efficient delivery of needed, useful, capabilities at a fair and reasonable cost,” the report reads.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has enrolled into the Continuous Vetting program all U.S. security clearance holders within the Department of Defense as part of the Trusted Workforce 2.0 background investigation reform program.

DCSA said Friday that TW 2.0 seeks to overhaul the vetting process for clearance holders by allowing reciprocity across agencies and replacing periodic reinvestigations with a CV program that performs automated record checks through the use of new personnel vetting information technology system called the National Background Investigation Services.

The agency said NBIS is still under the development phase and seeks to reform the background investigation process by replacing legacy IT systems to help speed up processing, facilitate information sharing and improve security.

DSCA came up with two transitional phases to achieve the TW 2.0 program’s goal of providing continuous vetting for all security clearance holders by October 2023. Trusted Workforce 1.25 provides high-value automated record checks while the TW 1.5 phase seeks to facilitate automated checks of seven record sources.

DCSA Director William Lietzau said the enrollment of clearance holders into the CV program is a “major milestone for the national security community.”

“Not only does this allow us to help ensure the trustworthiness of the national security workforce, it helps identify and address factors that may lead to insider threat incidents, all while maximizing efficiencies across government; this is a major win for the security community,” added Lietzau.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has launched a banking pilot program designed to offer financial services to customers in an effort to advance the service’s long-standing goal of postal banking. The pilot program marks the first time the USPS has offered banking services since 1967.

Through the program, individuals will be able to deposit payroll or business checks up to $500 onto a single-use debit card, which USPS refers to as “gift cards,” enabling users to withdraw cash from an ATM or make online and in-person purchases, USPS announced Monday. 

The program will be tested at four locations in Washington, D.C.; Falls Church, Virginia; Baltimore; and the Bronx, New York. The sites and services are meant to be a “proof-of-concept” test, and USPS plans to expand the pilot’s services and locations in 2022.

Additionally, considered expansion services include a bill pay product with USPS branded reloadable cards and internal wire transfers between post offices. Long-term goals include USPS-owned ATMs, pending approval by additional statutory authorities.

USPS is in the solicitation process for proposals from the private sector for check verification services in an effort to enhance and expand pilot services.

The Postal Service is working with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) to implement the pilot program and train impacted employees of the test sites.

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said offering these kinds of expanded services will ensure the stability of the USPS in the future. “New services will not just have the post office doing well by the people, but will bring in needed revenue,” Dimondstein told The Washington Post.

The banking pilot marks a new step in alignment with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan to improve USPS’ financial performance. Other key steps in DeJoy’s plan include slowed delivery times for 40 percent of First-Class mail and increased prices, both of which have been implemented recently.

The launch announcement is also the latest in USPS’ effort to modernize and enhance its systems and operations. Last month, the Postal Service tapped Lumen Technologies to help update and optimize USPS networks.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has established a new office aimed at providing warfighters with hosting and compute capabilities through modern data center and cloud services, FCW reported Sunday. 

The Hosting and Compute Center is intended to integrate the cloud computing program office with the services directorate and ecosystem of DISA. 

An agency spokesperson told FCW that Sharon Woods, executive director of the agency’s Cloud Computing Program Office, assumed Friday the acting director role in the new organization. 

Earlier in January, the Department of Defense announced its plan to transition the management of enterprise cloud efforts from the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to DISA. 

In July, the DOD decided to drop the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract and replaced it with the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program that will seek to deliver multicloud requirements spanning all three security levels of the department. 

Les Benito, CCPO director of operations, said DISA is eyeing to release the solicitations for the JWCC initiative this month and award contracts by April 2022 if the plan pushes through, AFCEA reported Friday.

The Department of Energy will invest $400 million in basic science research projects that tackle topics related to clean energy, national security and economy.

Projects under the new funding opportunity announcement will support fusion energy sciences, high-energy and nuclear physics, basic energy sciences and other topics pursued by DOE’s Office of Science, the department said Friday.

The annual FOA, known as “Open Call,” launches at the start of a fiscal year to support more general research not tackled by more specialized projects.

This year's Open Call FOA is titled the “FY 2022 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program."

“This comprehensive investment will power new scientific breakthroughs and position America as a leader in scientific innovation," said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of Energy.