All posts by : admin-stone

Activity is constantly moving across and into the theater of the Middle East and central Asia, with sizable impacts for global security and global commerce. There are countless “ripple effects” from this area, such as Iranian drones that have appeared on battlefields in Ukraine. To manage such a complex and expansive situation, partnerships and international coalitions are non-negotiable — “not a ‘nice to have,’ but a ‘need to have,’” says Schuyler Moore, chief technology officer of U.S. Central Command. Moore, who is also a Wash100 Award winner, gave the morning keynote address at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 GovCon International Summit on Thursday.

The threat in the Middle East, Moore relayed, is distinct from what it was 20, 10 or even five years ago. Where once it was a place seemingly defined by “under-trained, under-resourced … ratag militia groups” who were “fundamentally limited by a ceiling,” countries like Iran now possess sophisticated technological skills that have produced ballistic missile capabilities and a bevy of unmanned systems.

“It would be a mistake to underestimate the quality and scope of technology and its impact on security both for the region and the global community. There are tactics, techniques and procedures and technologies that are being sharpened on the stone of this region that we have to keep an eye on,” Moore warned.

National security will be the driving focus of the Potomac Officers Club’s next event: the 2024 Homeland Security Summit. Guest speakers include the executive director, the chief strategy officer and the chief privacy officer of CISA; the chief technology officer of the Transportation Security Agency; and the deputy chief AI officer of Customs and Border Protection, among many others! Save the date—Nov. 13—and secure your spot today.

The U.S. needs to retain its willingness to sell and share technologies with other nations, because if we don’t provide those opportunities, nations may look to other manufacturers, like China, which could have catastrophic effects, Moore suggested.

However, with software in particular, aggressive monitoring and maintenance must occur when partnering and sharing with allies. Moore used the metaphor of building a different restaurant to accommodate the various “allergies” of these different collaborators. She described a situation that is extremely siloed, not just between the DOD and its global network but amongst the DOD and federal government itself.

“We do not operate on a single network. We have multiple networks across the Pentagon and across the other combat commands that sometimes talk to one another, sometimes don’t. And so we are dealing with our own separation of networks in addition to this challenge of having networks that multiple partners can access. So understanding that we would like to move in the direction of having more efficiency and more consolidation of those networks is an end state that we’d like to get to,” Moore underlined.

Luckily, Moore has one specific solution that she aimed right at the room of government contractors at the event.

“We ask industry to increasingly think about this as you build your software applications to understand that we would like to be able to use as consolidated and as efficient a number of kitchen tools as possible. And you can facilitate that by building in those attribute-based access controls into your software applications that will allow us to be more successful and use your tools more easily done online,” she said.

Even this, though, will not quite be enough. Moore raised that organizing data is going to be one of the most challenging yet important tasks for those building a more unified, communicative and efficient network. In order for “releasability” of information to be functional and effective, the data has to be labeled and sorted correctly.

This involves approaching large datasets with some nuance: too often, the CENTCOM CTO said, officials will just slap a label of “no foreign” on a large dataset when parts of it could be fair game.

“As soon as we do that, we are cutting off a door that might allow for better partnership down the road. So we must, as a community, look back at the data that we already have as a department and think about how we methodically move through,” Moore oriented.

Get in on the industry-government collaborative action. Learn about ways to enable the mission of DHS at the 2024 Homeland Security Summit. It will be rich with keynotes, panel discussions and opportunities for one-on-one interaction with peers, competitors and decision-makers.

The Defense Department released the final rule for the long-awaited Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program today, further paving the way for CMMC requirements to show up in contracts starting next year.

The final CMMC program rule was released for public inspection today. It’s expected to officially publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

The rule establishes the mechanisms for the CMMC program. The goal of CMMC is to verify whether defense contractors are following cybersecurity requirements for protecting critical defense information. Many contractors will be required to receive a third-party audit under the program, a significant departure from the current regime of relying on self-attestation.

DoD released the proposed CMMC program rule last December. The department received 787 comments on the rule before the public submission period closed in February.

“The department would like to thank all the businesses and industry associations that provided input during the public comment period,” DoD said in a statement released today. “Without this collaboration, it would not have been possible to meet our goals of improving security of critical information and increasing compliance with cybersecurity requirements while simultaneously making it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to meet their contractual obligations.”

The final rule released today establishes the CMMC program and processes into law. Separately, the Pentagon published a proposed CMMC acquisition rule this past summer. The comment period on the proposed acquisition rule closes Oct. 14.

In its statement today, DoD said the final acquisition rule will be published in “early to mid-2025.”

“Once that rule is effective, DoD will include CMMC requirements in solicitations and contracts,” DoD added.

CMMC a ‘glacial effort’

The Pentagon has been developing the CMMC requirements for more than five years. DoD began developing the rules due to concerns that many companies were not following contractual cybersecurity requirements, allowing U.S. adversaries to steal sensitive but unclassified data from their networks.

After significant industry push back due to the expected costs and impacts of the original program, however, DoD revised the program into the so-called “CMMC 2.0” in 2022.

During an appearance at the Professional Services Council’s annual defense conference on Tuesday, Deputy DoD Chief Information Officer Dave McKeown acknowledged how long it’s taken for CMMC to come to fruition.

“We’re nearing the end for sure – it has been a glacial effort,” McKeown said. “It has taken a long time, and it’s taken a lot of perseverance to work through getting the rule right and getting it approved, but we are definitely nearing the end, and it is imminent that this will be released, and everybody will have this in their contracts going forward.”

DoD will eventually scale the CMMC requirements across all applicable contracts. But in its proposed acquisition rule, the Pentagon laid out plans for a three-year-long “phased rollout” of the requirements. During that time, DoD program managers would have the discretion to include CMMC in contracts.

Three levels of CMMC

The final rule establishes three distinct “levels” of CMMC, as first envisioned under the revised program.

The CMMC requirements align with existing acquisition rules that require contractors to implement cybersecurity controls in National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) special publication 800-171 for protecting controlled unclassified information.

Under level one, contractors that handle less sensitive “federal contract information” will be able to submit a self-assessment of their compliance.

Under CMMC level two requirements, contractors that are generally required to protect “controlled unclassified information,” or CUI, may be required to obtain a third-party assessment. Those auditors will be authorized by the Cyber Accreditation Body, a nonprofit that holds a contract with DoD.

Meanwhile, DoD says some CUI will require a “a higher level of protection against risk from advanced persistent threats.” Contractors that handle that type of information will be required to get an assessment led by the Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Assessment Center as part of CMMC level three requirements. The level three requirements include additional cybersecurity controls laid out in NIST Special Publication 800-172.

“CMMC provides the tools to hold accountable entities or individuals that put U.S. information or systems at risk by knowingly misrepresenting their cybersecurity practices or protocols, or knowingly violating obligations to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents and breaches,” DoD said in its statement today.

The rule also allows DoD program offices to grant “Plans of Action and Milestones” for contractors that don’t fully comply with the NIST requirements. DoD says POA&Ms will be granted for “specific requirements as outlined in the rule to allow a business to obtain conditional certification for 180 days while working to meet the NIST standards.”

DoD in its statement released today encouraged companies in the defense industrial base to “take action to gauge their compliance with existing security requirements and preparedness to comply with CMMC assessments.”

Cloud plans

With companies and small business advocates raising concerns about the cost and complexities of CMMC, the Pentagon is also pointing businesses to cloud offerings and other managed services that could be used to meet the requirements.

Meanwhile, McKeown said DoD is partnering with large cloud service providers and managed service providers to establish a certification program that could meet “all or most” of CMMC requirements.

“There will probably be roles and responsibilities outlined between what the cloud service provider will do or the managed service provider will do, and the customer will have to do, but it will make it streamlined,” McKeown said. “Much like FedRAMP, we’ll say that this has our seal of approval that it is CMMC compliant, and then partners can start doing their work out of these environments and not have to uplift their whole entire home network in order to meet the requirements that’s going along very well.”

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency were passed over for promotions, received lower performance evaluations and got reassigned to other parts of the agency — all over disagreements about chemical safety.

The EPA’s inspector general office, in a string of partially redacted reports, found managers in the EPA’s New Chemicals Division, part of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, retaliated against employees who raised concerns about chemicals being approved for commercial release.

Kyla Bennett, the director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), said the EPA employees who faced retaliation worked as chemists and toxicologists.

“They would do these risk assessments on new chemicals, and they’d say, ‘OK, we found that this one causes cancer,’ for example. And the managers would say, ‘No, no, we don’t want to say that,’ and they’d delete the cancer designation. And it was happening over and over and over, and then they started getting retaliated against when they were pushing back,” Bennett said.

The watchdog office received hotline complaints from five EPA scientists, and substantiated the retaliation claims of three employees — including one case of whistleblower retaliation.

PEER filed the hotline complaints to the EPA IG’s office on behalf of these employees.

“Three personnel actions occurred within a period of time such that a reasonable person could conclude that differing scientific opinions or protected activities were contributing factors,” the IG reports state.

The EPA IG’s office found that EPA employees involved in these disagreements received lower performance evaluations, reassignment to a different division or were not selected for open positions or detail assignments.

The IG’s office found these cases of retaliation violated the EPA’s scientific integrity policy.

Unnamed EPA officials disagreed with the IG’s findings.

Officials told the IG’s office that an EPA scientist was not penalized for their scientific disagreements, “but instead assessed overall performance against various metrics, including ability to meet programmatic deadlines for new-chemical assessments.”

Officials also told the IG’s office that “performance ratings are not static and that employees are not entitled to the same rating they received in a previous year.”

EPA Inspector General Sean O’Donnell told members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last month that the “EPA has continued to resist the OIG’s important oversight role in protecting scientific integrity at the EPA.”

“These investigations underscore the indispensable role of the OIG in protecting scientific integrity at the EPA as the only independent resource in the agency empowered to investigate these matters without fear of interference,” O’Donnell told lawmakers. “Yet the EPA continues to resist revising coordination procedures between the IG and its scientific integrity program to require the prompt reporting to the OIG of political interference by senior agency officials and other misconduct.”

While the employees’ hotline complaints described retaliatory actions between 2019 and 2022, O’Donnell told lawmakers that his office “did not substantiate any allegations of direct retaliation after 2020.”

‘Pushing us like animals in a farm’

Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, last amended in 2016, EPA employees working in the New Chemicals Division must conduct a full assessment for every new chemical within a 90-day deadline.

However, a human health assessor at EPA told the IG’s office that it was “somewhat impossible” to fully assess the safety of a new chemical within that timeframe.

“The EPA has 90 days to say, ‘This presents an unreasonable risk, and it can’t go to market,’ or, ‘You’re OK if you put these protection measures in,’ or ‘No problem,’” Bennett said.

If new chemical assessments are not completed within the statutory 90-day deadline, they become a part of a backlog.

EPA management told the IG’s office that there had always been pressure to clear the backlog, but as the backlog grew, so did the political pressure to eliminate it.

Meanwhile, scientific disagreements between assessors and Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) management led to delays.

On April 30, 2020, the OPPT deputy director sent a message calling human health assessors the “worst ‘conservationist[s],” and complained that they were “trying to indict every chemical.”

An unnamed individual told the IG’s office that disagreeing or delaying the resolution of backlogged assessments could get an employee labeled as “problematic” by management.

EPA officials told the IG’s office that pressure from agency leadership to eliminate the backlog was “intense,” and described the pressure as “pushing us like animals in a farm.”

One official told the IG’s office that a political appointee complained about specific human health assessors being “slow” and asked their supervisors to be more involved in their work.

Agency leadership also characterized these assessors as too “conservative” in their approach.

The IG’s office, however, found that these remarks generally didn’t rise to the level of retaliation.

“The Merit Systems Protection Board has consistently held that a feeling of being unfairly criticized or difficult or unpleasant working conditions are generally not so intolerable as to compel a reasonable person to resign and thus are not personnel actions,” the reports state.

EPA officials told the IG’s office that the assessment completion timeline and the backlog size were not entirely in the assessors’ control.

Companies that submit new chemicals for assessment, for example, play a large role in the new-chemicals assessment process.

Bennett said EPA assessors are allowed to “pause the clock,” if they need more information from companies to assess their chemicals— but that this was “frowned upon.”

A ‘bipartisan problem’

“The culture of this division is such that they are rewarded for getting those reviews out in 90 days to help industry,” she said.

Before a final regulatory decision is made on a new chemical, companies also have an opportunity to dispute the assessment or provide additional information.

If a company doesn’t agree with an initial assessment of its chemical, it can continue to submit more information for the EPA to consider.

EPA officials told the IG’s office that this “never-ending rework cycle” often extends the timeline beyond the statutory 90-day deadline.

An EPA official told the IG’s office that an average case goes through two or three back-and-forth cycles of rework.

An agency official also stated that identifying fewer hazards or determining that a chemical was less hazardous led to a quicker overall assessment process.

Bennett said three EPA managers “that were the crux of the problem” have since left the agency, but said these problems persist.

“There are others there that are still horrific and who are still deleting hazards or ordering these employees to delete hazards and siding with industry, and it’s really despicable,” she said.

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the environment, manufacturing and critical materials subcommittee, said during last month’s hearing that EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety has grown its workforce under the Biden administration — including hiring a science policy advisor.

“I will not suggest that every issue has been fully solved. But it is clear that this administration is indeed committed to making improvements and safeguarding scientific integrity,” Tonko said.

The EPA published guidance on expressing and resolving scientific opinions in October 2020.

President Joe Biden issued a memorandum on restoring trust in government through scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking during his first week in office.

The White House recently announced that 19 agencies have released updated or new scientific integrity policies under the Biden administration.

However, Bennett said “no substantive change” have been made, and that the problems persist across multiple administrations.

“This is a bipartisan issue. It’s a bipartisan problem,” he said.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

• As we enter the final leg of election season the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reminding employees to stay above the political fray while they’re on the job. In a new memo to DHS staff, the department’s top lawyer runs down what is and isn’t allowed under the Hatch Act. That law prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities in a federal workplace while they’re on duty. The law also bars feds from using their official position to affect the outcome of an election. And DHS IT policy also prohibits employees from using government-issued equipment and services for political activities.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing for another devastating storm. FEMA has more than 1,000 staff in Florida to help respond to Hurricane Milton. The storm made landfall on Florida’s west coast last night. More than 8,000 federal personnel are already deployed across the southeast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. But FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency is ready to respond to multiple major disasters. “I want the people to hear it from me directly: FEMA is ready,” Criswell told reporters Wednesday. FEMA is currently supporting response and recovery for more than 100 declared disasters across the country.
• A former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee is convicted of defrauding the agency out of nearly a million dollars. A federal jury ruled a former engineer at the VA medical center in Philadelphia made up fake work and submitted false invoices to a shell company he owned. Prosecutors said the former VA employee kept his bogus billing scheme going for seven years. The former employee was convicted on 22 counts of wire fraud and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.
• An online hub for Americans to access benefits and services across the federal government is giving users a new option to sign on. The General Services Administration (GSA) will begin offering facial recognition technology as an option for users of Login.gov to verify their identities. The site is a one-stop for government-provided benefits and services. Login.gov will allow its users to match a “selfie” with the photo on a government ID, such as a driver’s license. GSA said Login.gov does not use these selfie images for any purpose other than verifying a user’s identity. GSA started testing the facial recognition option this spring.
• Agency acquisition experts and contractors here is your chance to give the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council a piece of your mind in a constructive way that is. The FAR Council is hosting a listening session on Dec. 4 in Washington, D.C. around three main areas. The council wants feedback on any new laws or draft legislation that it should focus on; How the council can improve the acquisition process and how it can better integrate commercial practices into federal acquisition. If you want to attend in person, you have to register by Nov.15. The council also is offering a virtual option.
• 5,000 more National Guard members have been mobilized to assist with Hurricane Milton. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the number of National Guard personnel activated to respond to Milton will soon increase to 8,000. The response includes 450 tactical vehicles, including 140 high water vehicles and aerial, water, and ground National Guard search and rescue teams. “This is probably the largest National Guard mobilization in advance of a storm in Florida history.” Additionally, the U.S. Army North has moved its personnel and equipment from its contingency command post to Fort Moore in Georgia to assist requests from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state leadership.
• Federal employees who have pending cases with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) will soon see new options for settlements. After seeing success in its alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program, MSPB is making its case settlement pilot, permanent. Feds always have the option to use a third-party mediator and settle an adverse action case, rather than go through the formal appeal process. Regardless of how far along a case is, MSPB usually asks parties to consider settling, because it gives both sides better control of the case’s outcome.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking to help its workforce develop better AI skills. Training and development opportunities for HUD employees will soon include a stronger focus on AI. HUD is currently assessing where AI skills gaps exist in its workforce not just for technologists, but across all of the department’s offices. “Not only will they have the opportunity to find out where their skills lie, but then based on the results of their assessment, they’re going to get personalized recommendations on what they need to take to actually help them improve,” Matisha Montgomery, HUD’s chief learning officer, said in an interview.
• The Navy spent more money with small businesses last year than ever before. The Department of the Navy spent almost 21 billion dollars with small businesses in fiscal 2024. New data from the Navy shows that it increased its contract awards to small firms by 35% since 2018, including spending almost 1 billion dollars more last year than in 2023. The Navy said awards to small, disadvantaged businesses increased by more than 200 million dollars and awards to service-disabled veteran owned small businesses increased by almost 8 million dollars last year. Beyond an increase in total dollars awarded to small firms, the Navy said 15 hundred new small business entrants won more than a billion dollars in contracts in 2024 as well.
• The Defense Department will soon release an unclassified version of the implementation guidance for its industrial base strategy. The guidance is still in review and will head to Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks for approval shortly. Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Deborah Rosenblum said the document will have a “level of specificity that is valuable” to all government partners. The document will include measurable criteria to evaluate the health of the defense industrial base. The DoD released its first defense industrial strategy earlier this year.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

When a press release has alerted the world of your retirement, the next phase of your life becomes locked and loaded. Now that I’m officially in the six-month countdown, there’s no turning back.

At one time I used to sort of pity people who counted down their days to retirement. Having had the blessings of great jobs I loved in good companies for 47 years, I don’t count the days in the sense of, say, Prometheus, contemplating the end of his daily liver extraction. I still love coming to work every day. Why, just this morning, not one but two federal agency heads visited the studio for an in-person Federal Drive interview. How could anyone not relish interaction with engaged, articulate and accomplished people doing important public service work?

Plus at the same time I’m engineering the audio recording, fiddling with my mixer “board” and keeping the mics adjusted, while minding the timing. I’m the master pipe organist at my console — mind, heart and body all in action, at the top of my game.

And yet I now understand the countdown syndrome. The psyche somehow lets you know when it’s time to move on. The practical realities of retirement suddenly look, like a speck on the horizon that turns out to be a container ship. Monthly income, Social Security, Medicare Part this, Part that, how to apply, what forms, what about the union pension… You’ve got to get on with decisions and the nutty, associated paperwork. Retirement planning is like a job unto itself, something I now know viscerally, not just intellectually.

I know folks who, at my age, have no plans to retire. Sometimes they say, “I wouldn’t know what to do.” My challenge will come from having too much to do. I’ve got a motorcycle and grand piano to spend more time on or at. Things I have the urge to write. Plus nearby grandchildren. A daughter who just got married to a great guy; they live nearby. And a wife of 40+ years with whom I haven’t had weekday breakfast or lunch in decades. Moreover, I’ll still be engaged in the federal market, even doing projects for Federal News Network. Phased retirement, you might say.

Make no mistake. Six months off, retirement does beckon. Literally yesterday we confirmed plans for a faraway trip later next year. I started to go to the corporate scheduling system to reserve the time off. Then I stopped and exclaimed to myself, you don’t have to do that!

I often joke that having a 5-day-a-week radio program is like having a demanding mistress. (The late Larry King had a  more vulgar way of expressing this.) Its endless, and I mean endless, requirements must be met no matter what. But, although it’s my voice on the show, I’ve got a small but dedicated and reliable group of colleagues — producers, reporters and web posters that actually make the whole thing possible.

Which brings up another facet of retirement. I like the people I work with, and I like working with them. Thinking about the post-work era, you realize the importance of maintaining a network of human connection. In fact, my mind sometimes wanders in recollection of colleagues from decades back, conversations we had, incidents that occurred, and I’ll burst out laughing. Yet I’m loathe to spend retirement sitting there in reverie for the past. I recall a character in one of those endless novels by James Michener, who warned another character against mining your memories too soon, lest you run out too early.

I won’t show up at the studio on May 1st, 2025. Or at least I don’t plan to. How many times have you run into someone, say at a conference, who, long past retirement age, has a new job? They’ll say, “I’m terrible at retirement.” Well good for them, but I don’t really admire that lack of balance or imagination, as if only career work can bring fulfillment. We’ll see.

Many years ago — here I am, mining a memory — my parents attended the wedding of the son of some close friends. A week later, my mother bumped into the son, a quirkly fellow to begin with. He was sort of loitering by himself on a corner near the square in our New England town. She asked, “Larry [not his real name], what are you doing here?”  It turned out that, for reasons we never learned, the marriage had lasted about 48 hours.

Well, I don’t plan to subject my colleagues to an awkward next-morning appearance.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Nearly five years ago, the Defense Department created six acquisition pathways, including the software acquisition pathway designed to streamline and accelerate the development and delivery of software.

The implementation of the policy has been slow, with only around 50 programs across the DoD utilizing the software pathway. The Army, for instance, has only used the pathway for 19 out of its nearly 537 programs.

Despite the slow start, Young Bang, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said the service is already exploring the idea of creating a separate path or a sub-path within the software pathway specifically for artificial intelligence.

“Let’s figure it out. Let’s be creative. Let’s put things together. Let’s put a [Middle Tier of Acquisition pathway] with a software pathway and work with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense]  to get to something faster for AI because as fast as the software pathway is, we need a faster path for algorithms,” said Bang.

“We’re experimenting and feeding and working with them to figure out a subpath that will be the only one right now. Previously, it was the only one with two pathways. This potentially may be three or will inform the subpath, but that’s important.”

The software pathway currently requires programs to reach a minimum viable capability release (MVCR) — or the first version of a functional capability delivered to personnel — within one year.  While the Army aims to release software updates faster—quarterly or even monthly— one year is considered the minimum time for achieving an MVCR.

“If you think about what a minimal viable capability release is, it takes a year to get there. I can train algorithms literally overnight,” said Bang.

“What we’re saying is there’s great utility in a software pathway, but if we use a software pathway for algorithms — overnight is a good example, but some of these can actually take a little bit longer, but still a week. And if we think about that, a week versus an MVCR in a year — the timelines don’t align.”

Bang said the Army is currently working with the office of the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment on whether there should be a subpath within the software pathway specifically for AI. That would allow the Army —and the entire department — to iterate more rapidly and accommodate the faster cycles of development that AI requires.

“Once you make the algorithms, you can extend and retrain them at the edge. You can do inverse learning, and you can do that quickly. And if we’re governed by a year-long MVRC process, we don’t think that’s fast enough to get capabilities out to our soldiers,” said Bang.

Deborah Rosenblum, the acting deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said the software pathway will be the most likely option since it already supports rapid development.

“I do believe it’s likely to be through the software pathway, if only because we’re trying to expedite and move things quickly. And we feel that the way in which the pathway is designed has enough flexibility and agility,” said Rosenblum.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

The General Services Administration is trying to put emerging technologies on the radar instead of having them sit below the radar.

To do that, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service has a new program to identify and research which technologies they need to prepare for in the next 3-to-5-to-7 years.

Michael Berkholtz, a senior manager for technology lifecycle services FAS, said the emerging technology radar is an internal program started about 18 months ago as a way to bring some standardization to how GSA focuses on the technologies that agencies potentially will need in the not-too-distant future.

“We had so many different ways to define what an emerging technology is, and we have 21 different contracts in the IT Category, so where do you actually want to start your research? How do we start thinking about what technologies are relevant? We had to look for a way to focus our efforts,” Berkholtz said in an interview with Federal News Network. “This idea of a radar is something, I think, a couple of industries use. You can find consulting groups that use it as well as large commercial firms. We think of it in terms of technology and technology maturity, how do we define our own business space?”

Through the framework, GSA reviews technology for its maturity based several perspectives:

• Technology that is coming into a government or private sector lab, mainly through concept papers.
• Is there any business value for this technology?
• What are commercial companies doing today and how are they experimenting with it? They aren’t necessarily putting it into their operating model, but
• Where technology is entering into the federal space, maybe through pilot programs. “That is where we really want to understand use cases, business models and who are the vendors in that space. So that we are looking at our contracts and saying do we have the right scope available, do we have the vendors who in this space and is there a change to the business model we have to be worried about? Then we start going through analysis as it relates to that,” Berkholtz said at the Federal Networks 2024 conference, sponsored by TeleStrategies and Suss Consulting.

A good example of how GSA applied this strategy came last summer when it issued two requests for information around software bill-of-materials (SBOM) and post-quantum cryptography.

Berkholtz said the RFIs helped FAS learn more about the vendors and what they are currently doing in these technology spaces.

Promise of virtual reality growing

Among the other technologies on the tech radar include artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, communications networks, virtual reality, augmented reality and other technologies that are most relevant to a broad swath of the government.

“We look at what the national labs are doing. We’ll go look at what’s coming out of Defense Innovation Unit. We also look at the Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology directorate. What does their research agenda look like?” he said. “We start seeing where’s the federal research dollars going to and what might be most promising across the board. Then we also look at private sources. What is industry investing in? We look at, for example, MIT. We’ve sent people their conferences. At Stanford University and other places, where is the research coming from? We start looking at that as a proxy for what technology is maturing. Where do investors see opportunities? And then we ask, ‘is this going to be relevant to us in the federal space?’”

Berkholtz said GSA is seeing a lot of interest and promise in virtual reality and how to apply it to training scenarios.

While it’s taken a little while for agencies and industry to figure out where VR fits into their technology stack, the Defense Department and others are starting to identify the use cases.

Quantum sensors, like VR was five years ago, is another technology where the market is starting to see some interest. Berkholtz said GSA is seeing some demonstrations of a capability where the user can actually use a quantum sensor to replace GPS navigation.

GSA’s development of the tech radar started in early 2023 with a series of meetings trying to create the outline of the tool. The agency worked with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and others to ensure the tech radar was going in the right direction.

Berkholtz said he expects the tool to continue to evolve.

“It has to be an iterative process. Functionally, we use the term radar to track as technology moves. In this case, as we identify technology that’s maturing, we look at our current family of contracts, say, ‘Hey, these couple of technologies look pretty relevant. They may not be ready now, but can you incorporate those under the scope you’ve got? And if not, do we need to?’” he said. “It’s a constantly an evolving tool as we learn more about the technology and what our federal customers may need today or in the future.”

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Invisible sacrifices: The billion-dollar social cost of military spouse unemployment

Given the sacrifices the military lifestyle demands, it’s no surprise the unemployment rate for military spouses has remained five times the national average.

Frequent moves, deployments, the demands of military life, and the lack of available and affordable childcare make it difficult for military spouses to establish and maintain careers. Given the sacrifices the military lifestyle demands, it’s no surprise the unemployment rate for military spouses has remained five times the national average for more than a decade. Military spouses face a 21% unemployment rate that has gone statistically unchanged in the last decade.

The impacts of this issue are far-reaching. Family and societal issues like depression and high military attrition rates can often be traced back to military spouse unemployment. Military families, frequently limited to one income due to the nature of service life, may struggle to balance their current needs with future financial security. This challenge extends far beyond individual households, creating ripple effects throughout society. The estimated annual social cost of military spouse unemployment is between $710 million and $1.07 billion. This includes things like increased dependence on social services, mental health issues, workforce underutilization and health issues. By addressing military spouse unemployment and supporting these families’ financial stability, we will not only improve their quality of life but also mitigate significant societal and economic costs to the country.

While military spouse unemployment is a complex and multifaceted issue, public and private organizations can collaborate to make meaningful careers more attainable for military spouses.

Lesser-known benefits of hiring military spouses

Military spouses offer a wealth of knowledge and experience as employees, and the benefits of hiring military spouses are wide-ranging.

Military spouses are more educated than the average American. About 37% of military spouses have earned a bachelor’s degree and 38% have a postgraduate degree. This compares to about 24% and 14% of Americans respectively.

Military spouses also have diverse experiences. Relocating every few years arms them with adaptability and problem-solving skills others may not have.

Due to frequent relocations, living in more diverse communities, overseas assignments and more, military spouses also often have high levels of cultural sensitivity and awareness, which can be an asset in the workplace.

What’s being done to address military spouse unemployment

Awareness is increasing about this issue, as are the attempts to do something about it. For instance, the Military Spouse Career Support Act of 2023 was signed into law earlier this year. This law expands the reimbursement of licensure and business costs to spouses of servicemembers who are transitioning to the reserves. In 2023, the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act made it easier for military spouses to transfer their professional licenses when moving due to military orders. Additionally, some workplaces that hire military spouses may be eligible for various government incentives and tax credits. For example, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) provides tax credits to employers who hire individuals from specific target groups, including qualified veterans and their spouses.

In addition to legislation, programs like the Department of Defense Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) and the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot are making a real impact. MSEP connects military spouses with hundreds of partner employers, including First Command, that are committed to recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses. MSEP currently has more than 700 partner organizations who have hired more than 275,000 military spouses. The Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot provides spouses with paid 12-week fellowships at employers across various industries and locations.

Lastly, some organizations choose to adopt policies that make it easier for military spouses to maintain their careers. First Command, for instance, partners with Hiring Our Heroes and dedicates advisor recruiting efforts to attract military spouses and veterans, and preserve their careers through PCS. As a result, 91% of First Command advisors are veterans or military spouses. Additionally, many other companies support efforts for employees who relocate with their service members during PCS to keep their positions, recognizing the great value military spouses bring to the workplace.

How organizations can help address military spouse unemployment

One important thing businesses can do to help tackle military spouse unemployment is to adopt the 4+1 commitment. This first-of-its-kind nationwide effort asks employers in all sectors to adopt at least one of four military spouse-friendly employment policies, plus consider joining an existing government spouse employment program. The four policies are:

• Facilitate job transferability
• Offer remote or telework
• Offer flexible work hours
• Provide paid or permissive Permanent Change of Station (PCS) leave

In addition to being one of the original 10 signatories to the 4+1 commitment, First Command has adopted all four initiatives, has joined existing government spouse employment programs and offers other programs to support military spouses.

Business leaders have a unique opportunity to support military spouses, an often overlooked but incredibly valuable talent pool. As of May 2024, there are an estimated 12.2 million military spouses in the United States, representing a wealth of skilled and resilient professionals. Business leaders should consider ways to enhance company policies to better serve these unsung heroes. Creating more opportunities for military spouses will make a positive impact on families, strengthen the country, and indirectly support its armed forces. Innovative ways to break down barriers and demonstrate how the business community can play a role in empowering military spouses will help support those who serve our nation.

Mark Steffe is president and CEO of First Command Financial Services, Inc.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.