Wednesday federal headlines – December 23, 2015

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

• The General Services Administration said it is exploring options for a new headquarters for the Department of Labor. GSA is exploring an exchange of the current headquarters and the underlying approximately 10.5-acre parcel and a Request for Expressions of Interest for a site that would accommodate approximately 850,000 square feet to 1.4 million rentable square feet. It is using the exchange approach for the new FBI headquarters as well. The Department of Labor is in need of a modern workplace facility, and the law requires its headquarters be located in D.C. (GSA)

• The General Services Administration is making it easier for agencies to buy cloud services on the SalesForce platform.  GSA awarded six companies a spot on a blanket purchase agreement for Salesforce technical development, operations and maintenance, and implementation strategy requirements. The five-year contract has a ceiling of $503 million. The new BPA vehicle is part of the administration’s strategic sourcing effort to streamline professional services. Too often agencies created new contracts for SalesForce, which ended up duplicating existing efforts and cost the government too much. An inter-agency team reviewed the bids under GSA Schedule 70 before choosing the six winning vendors. (GSA)

• A new study required by the 2014 defense authorization act recommends ways the Defense Department could save money on its satellite ground control operations. The study suggests possibility implementing more commercial practices and using the technological automation. In 2013 the Government Accountability Office said satellite ground operations were potentially duplicative because DoD used networks that were designed to only operate one satellite and not multiple satellites. (GAO)

• NASA is suspending the 2016 launch of the InSight Mission to Mars, planned for next March. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in one of the lander’s key science components. The InSight Lander was supposed to monitor seismic activity once it landed on Mars, it would have been the first mission to the planet since the Curiosity rover in 2012. NASA said a decision on where the mission goes from here will be announced in the coming months. (NASA)

• The cloud security program known as FedRAMP is releasing its high impact baseline standard for a second round of public comments. The Federal Risk Authorization Management Program office said after industry and agencies offered insights last March, a tiger team of federal agencies reviewed those suggestions and updated the cybersecurity standard. The high baseline standard includes more than 60 additional requirements than the moderate level. Comments are due back to FedRAMP by Jan. 8. (FedRAMP)

• The President has the authority to designate another civilian agency as the portal for cyber threat information sharing, if the Homeland Security Department portal isn’t working or secure. That’s according to the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, which Congress included in its 2016 omnibus spending bill. DHS has, and will stay, the portal for information sharing among agencies, and between government and private companies. Companies are required get rid of extra personal information before sharing information. DHS is supposed to do a second scrub of information. (Federal News Radio)

• Preliminary numbers are in, and no surprise, this year’s Open Season was the busiest on record. The Office of Personnel Management reported more than 700,000 transactions were processed during Open Season, which ended Dec. 14. That’s more than double the number recorded in 2012. The enrollment period was so busy that OPM is offering a limited enrollment period in February to give employees a second chance at switching plans, and saving money. Officials point to the new self-plus-one option as the reason for the record-setting year. Self-plus-one covers an enrollee and one eligible family member. (Federal News Radio)

• In a message distributed throughout the fleet earlier this week, the Navy named almost 60 separate systems that are at risk of failing to meet DoD cybersecurity rules during the migration to centralized data centers. Each of the systems have already been targeted as part of the Navy’s data center consolidation initiative, but some of the systems’ certifications have already lapsed, others will come due within the next year.

• Under an agreement with the FAA, Boeing’s commercial airplane division will pay a $12 million fine to settle enforcement cases both pending and potential. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the company agreed to make improvements in the design, building and testing of its planes. And to its internal controls and employee training. The company said many of the cases date back years and the improvements already made.

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