Senators move to ban sex offenders from future National Veterans Cemeteries

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• Agencies have less to worry about today after the Senate agreed Tuesday on a short-term spending bill, advancing it to the House by a 72-23 vote. The continuing resolution would keep the government running through December 16. It also includes $12 billion in funding for Ukraine and a five-year reauthorization for Food and Drug Administration user fees, ensuring that 3,500 employees will not be furloughed. Before funding expires at midnight on Friday, the House is expected to pass the bill avoiding a government shutdown. (Federal News Network)

• If a new bill moves through Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs will get new authority to expand national veteran cemeteries. The National Cemeteries Preservation and Protection Act would allow the Interior Department to transfer land to VA to expand or establish new National Veterans’ Cemeteries. The bill requires the VA to pay for plot allowances for Native American veterans buried in tribal veteran cemeteries. The bill also prohibits veterans who are tier-three sex offenders from being buried at National Veterans Cemeteries. Senate VA Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (S.D.) introduced the bill.

• The Commerce Department has made moves to make the U.S. patent system more widely accessible. Secretary Gina Raimondo added five federal officials to the Patent and Trademark Office’s Council for Inclusive Innovation. The Council’s charge: Change things like that fact that only 13% of patents go to women. New members are the Assistant Secretary for Economic Development Alejandra Castillo, National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, Copyright Director Shira Perlmutter, Under Secretary for Minority Business Development Don Cravins Jr., and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie Locascio.

• The Thrift Savings Plan board addressed barriers to understanding some nuances of the TSP. More than a third of TSP participants, in the lowest income bracket, have not made changes after being automatically enrolled in TSP at 3%. A study from the TSP board looks at ways to encourage more lower-income feds to move up to the 5% full matching rate. The study found that direct messaging to those workers may improve their likeliness to add to their contributions. The board also reported positive changes after adjusting the catch-up contribution program in 2021. (Federal News Network)

• As satisfaction declines and exhaustion rises for employees at the Social Security Administration, senators are urging President Joe Biden to nominate permanent leaders to the agency. To add to the agency’s challenges, the senators said labor-management relations worsened during the Trump administration, causing further workforce issues. SSA has now operated under temporary leadership for more than a year.

• The Navy Department is trying to make its system developers job a bit easier. Reference architectures as a guide to build systems don’t have to be so dense and useless. That is the approach the Navy Department’s office of the chief information officer is taking with its new Capstone Design Concept for Information Superiority. The goal of this newly released 14-page document is to give application developers the key ingredients to more easily meet the Navy’s goal of moving information anywhere at anytime. The Defense Department has more than a dozen reference architectures and few developers read or understand them. The DoN is trying to change the culture to ensure standardization and coordination across the service. (Federal News Network)

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing federal contractor R3 Government Solutions for retaliating against a Black female recruiter and discriminating against her because of race. The EEOC said the recruiter opposed R3’s recruiting and hiring practices, which they said restricted employment opportunities based on what is called “protected bases.” Kristen Berry, President and CEO of R-3 said in an email to Federal News Network that the company denies the allegations and will defend against them.

• Health officials need to react faster to public health emergencies as they develop, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. The report adds that Public Health agencies lack the ability to share new data and potentially life-saving information in “near real-time.” GAO recommended that health agencies improve in three areas to speed up their response to public health emergencies like COVID-19 and monkeypox.

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is postponing its annual cyber summit due to Hurricane Ian. CISA was scheduled to host the summit on October 4 in Atlanta, but the agency is pushing back the event to prioritize preparations for the hurricane. CISA will announce new plans for the summit at a later date.

• A key counterintelligence task force is pivoting to a new initiative to protect emerging technologies. The National Insider Threat Task Force will soon launch a new “safeguarding science” campaign. The goal is to protect American advances in technologies like artificial intelligence, semiconductors and biotechnology from being compromised by adversaries. Rebecca Morgan is deputy director of the task force. She said it will be working with public and private sector entities to raise awareness of potential insider threat activity. “Not because we want to control it, not because we want to stifle innovation,” she said, “but because we want people to understand the vulnerabilities that are out there.” (Federal News Network)

• Chief data officers across government are recognizing the members of the Air Force Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Office for their teamwork. The federal CDO Council is awarding the Air Force CDAO its Team of the Year award for 2021. The council said the office stands out for its success amplifying and leveraging the strategic use of data in the federal government. The CDO Council includes more than 80 members from across the federal government.

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