Monday federal headlines – April 4, 2016

The Navy makes changes to its uniform policy regarding tattoos and hats. Sailors may now have one tattoo under an inch on their neck, and have whatever amount o...

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

  • The Navy has made changes to its uniform policy regarding tattoos and hats. Sailors may now have one tattoo under an inch on their neck, and have whatever amount of ink they want below the elbow or knee. Navy Personnel Command has also authorized commands to immediately wear a coyote-brown command ball cap with the Navy Working Uniform. (Navy)
  • The Defense Department has awarded eight contracts for the program to spruce up military electronics, both hardware and software. Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Aeroflex , and Honeywell are all part of the $7.2 billion deal. The Defense Microelectronics Activity contracts are awarded under the Advanced Technology Support Program 4. (DoD)
  • Another major collaboration — a total of nine federal agencies have issued a final rule to establish regulations on how they work with faith based organizations. A 2002 Executive Order required agencies to come up with policies for faith-based organizations participation in federal programs to ensure equal protection. The list of agencies includes Veterans Affairs, Justice, Labor, and DHS. The regulations mostly deal with establishing rules for financial assistance and making language in previous rules more clear. (Federal Register)
  • Agencies have increased their usage of cybersecurity tools across almost every major category in the months since the Office of Management and Budget’s cyber sprint. OMB reported last week the final fiscal 2015 governmentwide progress against the cybersecurity cross-agency goal.  As of November 2015, agencies saw a 5 percent increase in the use of two-factor authentication for computer and network access. More departments also reported using anti-phishing and malware detection tools and sensors. OMB said agencies continue to struggle with implementing software asset management and secure configuration management. (Performance.gov)
  • For a few thousand Defense Department civilians, today is more than the typical first Monday in April. It’s the first full week of New Beginnings, DoD’s new personnel appraisal system. It’s been six years in preparation. About 14,000 people are part of the pilot phase. What the Pentagon learns with them will eventually roll out to more than 700,000 civilians. New Beginnings, mandated by Congress, replaces the unpopular National Security Personnel System. (Federal News Radio)
  • Customs and Border Protection is hiring. The agency announced it’s accepting applications to fill officer positions at land, sea, and air ports across the country, including Boston, San Diego, and Seattle. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and residents of the U.S for the past three years, under 37 years old and have a valid driver’s license. (CBP)
  • The IRS is the final word during tax season, but the Justice Department is adding its own advice as the filing deadline approaches. It’s issued advice to taxpayers to avoid fraudulent returns prepared by dishonest preparers. (Federal News Radio)
  • Agencies are falling farther and farther behind schedule in standing up their own insider threat programs. Challenges with culture, legal questions and resources are pushing some agencies back from meeting the basic requirements. The Obama administration was supposed to achieve initial operating capability back in December. The backlog of periodic security reviews also more than doubled in 2015. It steadily rose from roughly 4,000 in January to 8,700 by the end of the year. (Federal News Radio)
  • The Army has taken measures to close the last of its unneeded data centers. The service will issue a directive in June dictating which data centers need to close and when. The Army has also considered giving incentives to commands to close their data centers. The information in the data centers will be moved to commercial clouds. (Federal News Radio)

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