• NASA takes the first step to getting astronauts to Mars by 2033. It established the Moon to Mars program office under its Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. The program office will be led by Amit Kshatriya [Shah-tree-yah], a deputy associate administrator. Congress directed the space agency to create the Moon to Mars program office in the 2022 NASA Authorization Act. The office should focus on hardware development, mission integration and risk management functions. NASA also is adding a strategy and architecture office to the mission directorate to develop an integrated master plan based on the Moon to Mars objectives. (New program office leads NASA’s path forward for Moon to Mars – NASA)

• The Space Force finished testing the fit of its iconic navy blue dress uniform. 100 guardians worldwide were selected as fit test participants, and wore the pants and diagonally-buttoned jackets to test the size and measurements. The next phase will measure the durability, functionality and comfort of the prototype. The wear test will begin in summer 2023. Guardians will wear the uniform to work three days a week and provide feedback. The Space Force unveiled its initial service dress uniform prototype in September 2021. (USSF completes service dress uniform fit tests – U.S. Space Force)

• Workforce and workplace strategies are under review at the Homeland Security Advisory Council. One new subcommittee will review and make recommendations on the Department of Homeland Security’s workplace of the future. The review will consider the agency’s diverse missions and how employees work everywhere from ports of entry to remote office spaces. A second subcommittee will evaluate how DHS can advance workforce skills development. The council is expected to wrap up those reviews and finalize its recommendations this summer. (Notice of new taskings for the Homeland Security Advisory Council – Federal Register)

• The Department of Homeland Security is showing some positive progress from employees in its Inspector General office. DHS received a 64% response rate in the 2022 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey from employees in its IG office. That’s nearly double the response rate of the department overall. DHS officials said the IG office has seen some modest increases in the Employee Engagement Index since 2015, but that they’re planning to make improvements in some of the lower-scoring areas. DHS also created a dashboard for staff to review the overall FEVS responses. (FEVS Analysis – Department of Homeland Security)

• Union officials are touting support of telework amid growing calls to return feds to the office. 97% of federal respondents to a union survey were either in favor of or simply neutral to telework. Data that the American Federation of Government Employees collected last month shows telework improves productivity. But the survey results come as House Republicans heightened calls to return feds to the office. They said a lack of evidence from the Office of Personnel Management about the benefits of telework is another reason they’re pushing for the enactment of the SHOW UP Act. (Amid return-to-office calls, AFGE touts ‘overwhelming’ support of telework from feds – Federal News Network)

• An IRS watchdog said agency employees don’t have a proper channel to offer their feedback. The IRS eliminated its Employee Suggestion Program in October 2021, with no plans to replace it. The program received more than 3,600 submissions between fiscal 2018 and 2021. But the agency adopted just over 2% of the suggestions it received. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration finds the IRS wasn’t running the program effectively. For each suggestion that made it past an initial screening, the IRS spent an average of 31 hours per suggestion. TIGTA also finds that many of the employee suggestions it reviewed were not properly evaluated by the IRS. (IRS Eliminated Its Employee Suggestion Program Without Plans for a Replacement – Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration)

• Diplomats warn of a chilling effect on their dissent if the State Department fulfills a congressional subpoena. The House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a subpoena last week to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding the department turn over a dissent channel cable from diplomats wary of a full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The department had until yesterday to provide those records. The dissent channel gives diplomats an opportunity to constructively criticize Foreign Service policy decisions, and gives department leadership an opportunity to respond. Both Blinken and the American Foreign Service Association said giving Congress access to these confidential records would have a chilling effect on diplomats giving their candid feedback to leadership. (State Dept faces subpoena for confidential records. Diplomats fear chilling effect – Federal News Network)

• The CIO-SP4 GWAC almost gets across the finish line. NITAAC made nearly 400 awards last Friday under the next generation IT services governmentwide acquisition contract. But instead of the CIO-SP4 vehicle being prepped for use by agencies, NITAAC is facing almost two dozen new protests. Unsuccessful bidders submitted complaints to GAO after not earning a spot on the 10-year contract with a $50 billion ceiling. GAO has until around July 10 to make a decision. In the meantime, NITAAC awarded spots on CIO-SP4 to 257 small businesses from across the socio-economic spectrum and more than 120 large businesses. (CIO-SP4: A tragedy, a comedy and a drama we couldn’t stop watching – Federal News Network)

• A federal grand jury indicted three former members of contractor Austal USA on charges of fraud related to building the Navy’s littoral combat ships. The indictment charges three Alabama men with orchestrating an accounting fraud scheme at the Mobile-based shipbuilder and conspiring to mislead shareholders. They suppressed the estimate of completion on several of the ships in order to artificially inflate the company’s earnings. Defendants Craig Perciavalle, Joseph Runkel and William Adams face several counts of wire fraud, and wire fraud affecting a financial institution. (UNITED STATES V. CRAIG D. PERCIAVALLE, JOSEPH A. RUNKEL, WILLIAM O. ADAMS (AUSTAL USA, LLC.) – Department of Justice)

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is eyeing a big contract award this summer. CISA is planning to award Digital Transformation Support Services contracts this July. The agency laid out its acquisition strategy during a pre-quotation conference with vendors last month. CISA plans to potentially award four blanket purchase agreements for the digital transformation work. The winning contractors will help CISA centrally manage and deliver IT capabilities, including cloud services across the growing cyber agency. CISA plans to release the final request for quotations in mid-April. (CISA Digital Transformation Support Services (DTSS) – SAM.gov)

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