GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (9/9–13)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers a number of interesting topics, from Perspecta's protest of DoD's $7.8B DEOS award, to increased R&D spending in the Senate defense appropriations bill, to Energy's new Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office.
OPM
Fedscoop – OMB issues finalized Trusted Internet Connections memo
"The revamped guidance aims to increase network security across the government, while at the same time giving agencies more flexibility to utilize new security options. Goodbye to the days of a required physical TIC access point, hello modern alternatives. The memo also seeks to implement 'a process for ensuring the TIC initiative is agile and responsive to advancements in technology and rapidly evolving threats.'"
DoD
"Katie Arrington, DOD's chief information security officer for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, told reporters at the CMMC draft release Sept. 4 that it should only cost a few thousand dollars."
"As the Defense Department continues to embrace artificial intelligence and even plans to possibly use it in operations as soon as next year, the Air Force is solidifying its focus on the technology by releasing a new strategy that addresses the use, ethics and workforce needs of AI in the service. The strategy, released Thursday, identifies AI as crucial to fielding a future Air Force, executing multi-domain operations and confronting threats before they reach the level of actual combat."
Capitol Hill
"The 2020 Senate defense appropriation’s bill offers a $20.5 billion increase to the Pentagon next year, along with an extra $1.7 billion in emergency funds to rebuild military bases razed by Hurricanes Michael and Florence.The full appropriations committee will consider the $695.6 billion bill on Thursday. The bill encompasses most of the Pentagon’s budget — separate bills address military construction funds and parts of the defense budget that fall under the Energy Department— and is in line with the recent budget deal, which allows the Defense Department a grand total of $738 billion for 2020."
Energy
Washington Executive – Energy Department Launches AI and Technology Office
"Energy Secretary Rick Perry has stood up a new Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office within his agency to serve as a coordinating hub for the AIwork already being done enterprisewide."
OMB
FCW – White House updates Trusted Internet Connection policy
"The White House released a new Trusted Internet Connection policy Sept. 12 to bring the rules governing how federal agencies connect to the internet in line with current cloud and managed services technology. The new policy "includes pathways to take advantage of modern technology and capabilities and software that wasn't even imagined with that original policy was written," Federal CIO Suzette Kent said at a FedScoop event. The TIC policy, she said, was the final major technology policy rewrite of rules that were more than five years old."
Protests
"Less than two weeks since missing out on the Department of Defense’s $7.8 billion Defense Enterprise Office Solutions back-office cloud contract, Perspecta has filed a protest against the award. Perspecta Enterprise Solutions LLC filed its post-award bid protest of DEOS with the Government Accountability Office, according to a spokesperson with the General Services Administration, the agency leading the acquisition on behalf of the DOD."
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