Friday federal headlines – December 11, 2015

In Friday's Federal Headlines, the DHS Science and Technology Reform and Improvement Act calls for the Department of Homeland Security to overhaul its technolog...

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on the Federal Drive.

  • The House passes the DHS Science and Technology Reform and Improvement Act. It calls for the Department of Homeland Security to overhaul its technology research efforts. The State and Local Cyber Protection Act was also passed which will require DHS to aid state and local governments with their cybersecurity efforts in several ways including providing training on cybersecurity, privacy, and civil liberties. (Congress)
  • Federal contractors filed more bid protests to the Government Accountability Office in 2015 than the year before. GAO issued its annual bid protest report to Congress, showing a 3 percent increase over 2014. This was the fourth time in five years that the number of protests filed to GAO increased.  Contractors did receive some form of relief about 45 percent of the time, which was up 2 percent over last year. The audit agency also reports that more cases are being solved through the use of alternative dispute resolution processes. (GAO)
  • A study by the RAND Corporation states that integrating women into the military will most likely not be a problem for the United States. Research shows that cohesion between men and women improves over time in other country’s militaries. The study also states that there will be very minor costs associated with integration. RAND said the military can look to foreign countries and fire and police stations for useful insights. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced last week that the military will integrate women into all military positions. (RAND)
  • The Senate passed a stopgap continuing resolution to the government for the five days in the hopes it will buy time for them to negotiate a longer spending bill. The bill now goes to the House where it will likely receive a vote later today. Many Congressional leaders are saying a long term deal will be unveiled on Monday. (Congress)
  • An organization of defense and veterans advocacy groups have been lobbying members of the House Armed Services Committee this week to end the offset in DoD’s Survivor Benefit Plan payouts and Veterans Affairs’ Dependency and Indemnity Compensation program, according to the Military Times. Activists said when a deceased veteran qualifies for both programs, every dollar paid out in DIC payouts under SBP are reduced by $1, creating a loss of up to $15,000 for their families. Tough issue to fix for lawmakers though since ditching the offset completely would create a deficit of over $1 billion for the federal government. (Military Times)
  • NIST is seeking insights from industry and expert on the almost two-year-old critical infrastructure cybersecurity framework. The agency issued a request for information asking for comments on 25 questions about how the framework is being used today and what are the areas in need of updates. One big question focuses on whether the framework is improving the cybersecurity of the specific sector or organization using it. NIST also wants to collect best practices and wants information on how the long-term governance of the document could be improved. Comments are due Feb. 9. (NARA)
  • President Barack Obama plans to nominate Andrew Mayock to be the next deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget. The White House announced the President’s plans to promote Mayock Dec. 10. Mayock already works at OMB as a senior advisor in the Office of the Director. He joined the director’s office in November and has worked at OMB since 2013 where he was the associate director for General Government Programs. If confirmed by the Senate, Mayock would replace Beth Cobert, who was nominated in November to be the permanent director of the Office of Personnel Management. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Hispanic Council on Federal Employment says the latest report from the Office of Personnel Management about Hispanics in the federal workforce isn’t good enough. Hispanics made up 8.4 percent of the federal workforce in fiscal 2014. It’s a 0.1 percent from the previous year. The Council said the slow progress doesn’t mean much when it considers how quickly the Hispanic population is growing as a whole. Not all agencies are studying why they cannot recruit and retain Hispanics in their workforces, the Council said. (Federal News Radio)

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