Quick Hits

Congressional committee advances bill to prevent Schedule F.

Seeking to block the previous White House’s previous efforts to reclassify tens of thousands of federal jobs as at-will ones, Democrats on the House Rules Committee advanced the Preventing a Patronage System Act yesterday by an 8-4 vote.
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Army’s Office of Small Business Programs has some stats about FY2022 performance.

Oooh we love some good spreadsheets and stats! In this one, we learn that Army has not yet achieved its HUBZone Small Business, Small Business, or Woman-Owned Small Business goals for FY2022. Their Top 5 small business NAICS includes a lot of R&D (as well as construction and building engineering), with an interesting $41.62M spent in electronic computer manufacturing for NGB. Time is ticking before the close of the FY….close those deals now!
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ICYMI Snippets:

• Login.gov gets a new director. Welcome, J. Amos Stone!
• Appeals court questions presidential power in personal healthcare decision, potentially throwing vax mandate into trouble.
• WH outlines guiding principles for Big Tech reform.
• NIST, Google announce chip R&D partnership.
• Donald Cravins, Jr. has been appointed by the US Senate to the US Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency.

Top Defense & Aerospace

The demand for cybersecurity professionals is at an all-time high, and the labor shortage in this field continues to grow. DOD is planning on a new strategy to close that gap that CIO John Sherman introduced during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. “We have a cybersecurity workforce strategy coming out probably within the next 60 days,” Sherman said. “We need a dedicated workforce strategy … looking not only at cyber, but broader STEM efforts, and what we’re doing across the enterprise era. So, we have a strategy specifically on this as we look to diversify the workforce … this really is our generation space race.”
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DOD backs down from SAM.gov registration requirement.

Facing mounting delays with transitioning to a new unique entity identifier system at SAM.gov, Defense Pricing and Contracting office last week issued a deviation to the FAR that permits services and defense agencies to do business with companies not registered at SAM.gov.
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ICYMI Snippets

• Ligado’s 5G network will interfere with some DOD satellite services.
• US Space Force selects the University of Puerto Rico for partnership (the 14th member of the University Partnership Program).
• USAF gets its first deliveries of MH-139A Grey Wolf test helicopters, a Leonardo and Boeing project worth $2.4B.

Defense Contract Awards

• SAIC wins $200M Army Forces Command contract.
• Northrop Grumman was awarded a $76M Navy contract for software technical development support.
• PC Krause & Associates was awarded a $20M Air Force contract for Aircraft Modeling, Simulation, & Analysis and Digital Engineering program (a SBIR III contract).

Follow the Defense Leaders

• Bradley Walker is signing on at Booz Allen Hamilton as a Project Manager, Senior.
• Brig. Gen. Christopher Povak joins NRO as deputy director and commander of the Space Force Element.
• Nickolas Guertin is nominated to be Navy’s acquisition chief.
• Brad Pedersen named MD Helicopters President, CEO.

Follow the Defense Job Openings

• US Coast Guard is looking for a Director, IT (Application Systems).
• Army is looking for a Director of Resource Services Washington.

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Top Intel Community

CISA is holding a series of listening sessions so you can yak at them before the new Cyber Incident Reporting and Critical Infrastructure Act reporting regulations go into effect. In the RFI announcement, CISA is specifically asking for industry feedback as they seek to define the meaning of “substantial cyber incident,” “ransom payment,” “ransomware attack” and “supply chain compromise.”
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“You’re too slow and cumbersome” – GAO to IC.

The GAO is stepping into how the IC uses commercial satellite imagery. As we all know commercial satellite companies can play a key role in providing imagery and data critical to national security issues. But GAO says that the IC and DOD have a “slow and cumbersome approach” to incorporating emerging commercial capabilities” that puts the US at “risk of losing a technological advantage over emerging competitors.” GAO also gave four recommendations on how to get this issue squared away.
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ICMY Snippets

• DIA director discusses strengthening intelligence at Summit.
• Learn how to do business with CISA through their Vendor Engagement Program.
• Office of Naval Intelligence receives award for diversity hiring efforts.

Intel Contracts Awards

• Riverside Research Wins 5-Year, $200M NASIC Contract.
• SciTec wins US Space Force FORGE contract.
• Valiant awarded spot on $850M DTRA modeling & simulation support contract.

Follow the Intel Leaders

• Mitre adds pair to its national security leadership team.
• Former Director of FBI National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force joins FTI Consulting.

Follow the Intel Job Openings

• DCSA is seeking a Senior Advisor for Cyber Counterintelligence.
• DIA is seeking a Deputy Counsel to the Inspector General.
• DCSA is looking for a new CIO.

Top Civilian

DHS not sufficiently tracking SW border migrant activity, according to OIG.

DHS’s OIG reported on Friday that the department’s technology systems are insufficiently tracking migrants at the Southwest border, with ad hoc and manual methods used all too often, over systems-based approaches. The report to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made eight recommendations, with department officials have concurred with.
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NIH injects $130M to provide quality tools, data for AI in medicine.

As part of the NIH’s launch of the Bridge to Artificial Intelligence program—or Bridge2AI—the agency is investing $130 million over four years in an effort to increase the use of artificial intelligence in biomedical and behavioral research. Bridge2AI researchers will create guides and standards for developing “ethically sourced, state-of-the-art, AI-ready data sets” that will help solve health issues, such as how factors like genes, behavior and environment impact a person’s health throughout their life.
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ICMY Snippets

• VA issued a NOI to sole source a tech training contract with OIT.
• VA officials have ideas on how to further improve workforce engagement and satisfaction.
• State Department releases a plan for how it will diversify its workforce.

Civilian Contracts Awards

• Maximus wins $6.6B CMS contract for contact center operations.
• Sierra7 awarded an $11M award under CIO-SP3 to support the FPAC IT Service Desk.
• IRS awards Brillient Corp. a Phase 1 contract to modernize submission processing.
• Alpha Omega Integration, LLC wins $100M DHS’s USCIS DevSecOps TO.

Follow the Civilian Leaders

• Darren Ash has been named CIO of the Department of the Interior.
• Dr. Renee Wegrzyn is named the new Inaugural Director of the ARPA-H.
• Christopher Jones has taken a position as Chief Revenue Officer at Appian.
• Mark Irwin named Serco CEO, Rupert Soames to retire.
• CBP promotes Scott Davis to CISO.

Follow the Civilian Job Openings

• HHS/NIH is looking for an Administrative Officer (Deputy Associate Director for Management).
• The US Sentencing Commission/Judicial Branch is looking for a Director-Office of Technology.
• DHS is seeking a Senior Advisor (Immigration).

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GovCon M&A Corner

SkyePoint Acquires SNR Government IT Services.

SkyePoint Decisions, Inc. acquires SNR Government IT Services LLC (SNR GITS), a subsidiary of Arrowpoint Corporation. SkyePoint acquired all assets including its DLA JETS, Army RS3, and Army ITES-3S information technology and cybersecurity services contract vehicles.
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Google wraps up purchase of Mandiant.

Google has wrapped up its $5.4 billion cash purchase of Mandiant as both companies aim to provide a suite of end-to-end platforms and support offerings designed to help customers secure cloud and on-premise information technology assets. The search engine company said the acquisition will provide enterprise clients access to advisory, threat detection and intelligence, automation and response, and managed defense services.
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