The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has granted contracts valued a total of $5.4 million to four companies for research and development of an enterprise information processing system for the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service’s Common Cloud Framework.
The contracts call for the delivery and demonstration of working models using application programming interfaces to enable NCCF to process the vast inquiries that NOAA receives and accommodates, NESDIS said Thursday.
A report released by the Department of Commerce’s Office of the Solicitor General in August observed that the NCCF’s current cloud platform lacks security support and puts critical data at risk.
Two of the awardees—Element 84 and Orion Space Solutions—won a two-year contract each valued at about $1.2 million and $2 million, respectively.
Booz Allen Hamilton, another awardee, secured a one-year contract for approximately $1.1 million. The fourth contractor, Noblis, won a 15-month contract worth about $1.2 million. NOAA selected the contractors in a competitive BAA solicitation that drew 27 proposals.
The U.S. Secret Service has taken responsibility for the failures that resulted in the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and is asking for more resources going forward, a top official said Friday.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe briefed reporters on the agency’s findings following an investigation into how a gunman was able to scale a nearby roof and fire multiple shots at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler. Trump sustained an injury to his right ear, and one spectator was killed while two others were seriously injured.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said.
The investigation revealed communication “deficiencies” between law enforcement personnel and an “overreliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed,” Rowe said, highlighting that vital information about the shooter was transmitted via phone instead of over the Secret Service radio network.
The investigation also uncovered “complacency” among some staff members who visited the site ahead of time but did not escalate to supervisors their concerns over “line of sight issues,” Rowe said.
“The findings of the Mission Assurance review have prompted the Secret Service to move into the accountability phase of this process,” he said, referring to the agency’s title of its investigation.
“What has become clear to me is we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations. As was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach, the threat level is evolving,” Rowe said.
“This increased operational tempo requires additional resources to not only account for costs being incurred today, but ensure that we have the tools, technology and personnel needed to meet these new requirements and execute our mission going forward,” he said.
Second attempt to harm Trump
The investigation’s conclusions were revealed less than a week after a second attempt on Trump’s life. On Sunday the Secret Service thwarted a gunman’s attempt to aim a high-powered rifle at the former president while he was playing golf on his West Palm Beach, Florida, property.
The incidents prompted unanimous U.S. House support for a measure to grant presidential and vice presidential candidates the same security level as the officeholders. The proposal sailed through the lower chamber Friday in a 405-0 vote.
On Monday a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July attempted assassination in Pennsylvania announced an expansion of its purview to also probe Sunday’s attempt in Florida. The task force will hold its first hearing Thursday.
Rowe said the agency has been providing the “highest levels” of protections for presidential candidates since the July 13 assassination attempt.
That increased level of protection is working, Rowe told reporters, recounting how an agent swept the area ahead of Trump and “took steps to neutralize that threat.”
“No shot was fired at the former president. The former president was not exposed to where he was on the golf course,” he said.
Extending that level of protection means the agency is “burning through a lot of assets and resources.”
“This isn’t pie in the sky, trying to say ‘Hey, we want this now.’ We are not capitalizing on a crisis,” Rowe said.
Rowe would not disclose an additional dollar amount the agency is seeking and said conversations with congressional appropriators are “ongoing.”
“The threat is not going to evaporate anytime soon, and so we have to be prepared for this. And that is the argument that we have been making. We have certainly made some inroads, and we’re having these productive conversations with the Hill,” he said.
Rowe was appointed as the agency’s acting director after former Director Kimberly Cheatle heeded loud cries for her resignation, stepping down 10 days after the attempt on Trump’s life in July.
Rowe would not detail who or how many in the agency will face discipline, citing federal regulations preventing him from discussing it further.
“What I will tell you is that I have not asked for anybody to retire. I know some of that was reported. That is false,” Rowe said. Rowe said the agency’s offices of Integrity and Professional Responsibility will together decide any discipline in accordance with the agency’s “table of penalties.”
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The desired solution would facilitate information exchange among the government-owned Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture—or PWSA—commercial satellite networks and other space-based data transport networks, the SDA said Friday in a request for proposals.
The PWSA is a low Earth space architecture designed to provide U.S. warfighters with a resilient, military sensing and data transport capability, according to the notice.
SDA is seeking comprehensive studies and software prototyping to better understand how network orchestration capability would benefit government space initiatives, such as the PWSA program. The agency noted that it prefers prototypes that could be readily transitioned into operational capabilities.
Selected partners are also expected to perform engineering studies, analyses, technical trades and simulations of the required capabilities.
Notably, the government would prioritize proposals that could bundle all the requirements in a common simulation environment for a final capstone demonstration.
Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals no later than Oct. 21.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy announced the establishment of a new space sustainability division that will consolidate the agency’s orbital debris-related activities, SpaceNews reported Saturday.
At a conference held Thursday, the previous Wash100 awardee stated that the space agency received the needed congressional approvals to form the division, which she said will serve as a “unified organization that will integrate our operational, research and policy functions.”
The newly established division will be led by former astronaut Alvin Drew and operate as part of the Space Operations Mission Directorate, which includes the International Space Station.
“If you have an operational mission, having it under operational control is really helpful,” Melroy said. “That’s the day-to-day urgent mission. We’re keeping astronauts and our spacecraft safe.”
According to the deputy administrator, the division will have access to approximately $40 million in funding spread across the agency.
The center will build upon the computer codes the laboratory’s researchers have developed and indicated effective and rapid structure search methods through artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, Ames said Thursday.
The new center will tap exascale computers at other national laboratories to find the right materials from the large and complex list of potential choices, the Iowa State University-operated laboratory added.
To harness the various processors and hardware of the exascale computers, reputed as among the most powerful in the world, the center will use software from the Exascale Computing Project, a joint effort of the Energy Department’s Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory will collaborate with Ames on the center, which will draw funding from the Energy Department’s Office of Science.
In the private sector, SandboxAQ is using AI to discover and develop new compounds and chemistries that could be combined to produce new materials for potential use by the U.S. Army and other defense and government customers, Jen Sovada, the company’s president of global public sector and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, told Federal News Network recently.
The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service is working to streamline the government procurement process through several efforts, including reducing the procurement acquisition lead time, or PALT, Federal News Network reported Thursday.
Mark Lee, assistant commissioner for the Office of Policy and Compliance at FAS, told FNN in an interview how the Commercial Platforms program is helping GSA improve PALT.
“One is our recent award of the Commercial Platforms program, which is like the second generation of the program. Basically this streamlines for purchase card holders the buying process to access commercial online marketplaces,” Lee said. “So we’ve pre-negotiated agreements across the federal government with eight commercial marketplaces, and we’ve seen significant time savings for our customers.”
He cited the use of oral presentations and how it helps GSA facilitate the source selection process as part of its PALT improvement efforts.
“A lot of times we’re using oral and video presentations to do technical evaluation. So rather than get a 200 page volume of technical material for a source selection panel to read through — it’s voluminous — we invite people to come in and they do about typically a 90 minute presentation,” Lee commented. “We’ve seen the use of oral video presentations have dramatically streamlined the source selection process. We needed a better experience for industry partners and this helped us streamline getting to contract award.”
The GSA official also discussed FAS’ efforts to update GSA Advantage, particularly the FAS catalog platform, and initiatives to improve the user experience.
Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, the deputy commander of Fleet Cyber Command, recently underscored the need to provide credible counterspace capabilities as a deterrence to China and Russia, which are developing counterspace technologies themselves.
Berg, who also serves as deputy commander of the Navy Space Command, made the remark on Monday at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, where she attended as part of a panel featuring U.S. Space Force and U.S. Navy leaders who discussed the increasing importance of space operations, according to the USSF on Wednesday.
In Berg’s opinion, space warfare is currently in the same state cyber warfare was in 10 years ago, and integrating space into military operations should be guided by lessons learned from how cyber was integrated into operations.
Also part of the panel was Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, assistant chief of space operations for future concepts and partnerships, who underscored the need for a responsible manner of conducting space operations.
The Space Force official advocated for “reversible effects” that would prevent the proliferation of debris in orbit.
“I think collectively, we all need to [have] policy discussions,” Godfrey said.
The Defense Logistics Agency and the U.S. Space Force will establish a new framework for logistics support and develop metrics to measure performance in parts availability and order response time, among other areas, under a new agreement.
In a statement published Thursday, Greg Ogorek, national account manager to the Space Force at DLA, said the metrics will help DLA better meet supply requirements, particularly for parts that have no producer or are in low demand.
“It’s those hard-to-get parts keeping weapons systems down that we need to better position ourselves from a stock perspective and predict what’s going to be needed to keep the mission going,” Ogorek noted.
Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly, head of DLA, and Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, chief operations officer at the Space Force, signed the agreement Wednesday at a conference in Maryland.
According to Simerly, the agreement establishes the standards for optimizing the effectiveness of the agency’s logistics support for the military branch worldwide.
The agreement will also create an Executive Steering Group for the general officer level and a Partnership Agreement Council for colonels and below.
“With these working groups, we’ll bring together leaders from both sides and all the supporting actors to go over topics and work around emerging concerns as we agree on future endeavors,” Ogorek stated.
The National Treasury Employees Union on Thursday became the latest federal employee union to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential campaign.
NTEU joins the American Federation of Government Employees and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, both members of the AFL-CIO, on the list of labor groups representing federal workers to endorse Harris following her ascension to become the Democratic nominee this summer. AFGE and IFPTE had both endorsed President Biden in 2023, and then updated those endorsements after his withdrawal in July.
In a statement, NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald touted Harris’ record supporting federal workers and empowering unions at federal agencies.
“When it comes to treating federal employees with respect, valuing their service and investing in their work, Kamala Harris is the clear choice,” Greenwald said. “She shares our values and our commitment to making sure that the federal government works for all Americans. She has been a strong advocate for the issues that matter most to federal employees: fair pay, paid family leave, adequate agency funding and staffing and robust collective bargaining rights.”
Though the endorsement makes no mention of Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, his own record on workforce and labor issues likely played a large part in NTEU’s choice. While in office, the Republican nominee sought to reduce labor’s influence on the federal workplace and to strip tens of thousands of federal workers in “policy-related” positions of their civil service protection; he has vowed to revive the latter initiative if elected in November.
Greenwald also noted that Harris has cultivated a working relationship with the union throughout her political career, and values the non-partisan civil service.
“Harris has a long career in public service, which has given her a keen understanding of how the skilled civil servants who perform the day-to-day work of government are vital to our democracy,” she said. “She is a powerful voice for workers and their unions, recognizing that taxpayers are better served when the federal workforce is organized and empowered to help agencies meet their important public service missions.”
The Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy missed the deadline to implement laws designed to protect national security from the risks brought by consulting services providers that serve potential U.S. adversaries such as China, according to the Government Accountability Office.
From 2019 to 2023, Congress enacted five laws to revise federal acquisition regulations and policies to address the potential risks related to organizational conflicts of interests and foreign ownership, control or influence linked to the awarding of contracts to consultants but the DOD and the OFFP have yet to implement three of the said laws, namely the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Section 847, the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act and the FY 2024 NDAA Section 812, GAO said in a report published on Thursday.
The government watchdog found that the DOD and the Department of Homeland Security accounted for over half of the $500 billion spent on consulting services contracts from FY 2019 to 2023, raising national security concerns as the contracts involved work related to defense analyses or intelligence.
To address the issues, GAO recommended that the secretary of defense take steps to ensure prompt updates are made in response to legislation on how acquisition personnel use FOCI information when awarding or modifying contracts and that the OMB director ensure prompt updates are made to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
