Long-time OMB official lands COO post at SSA

Federal Newscast

Dustin Brown is the new chief operating officer and acting chief of staff at Social Security.

Peter Musurlian@PMusurlianWFED

May 6, 2024 8:39 am

< a min read

A long-time official at the Office of Management and Budget is taking on a new role at the Social Security Administration. Dustin Brown is the SSA's new chief operating officer and acting chief of staff. SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley said Brown will transition from his detail, which started earlier this year, to a permanent COO role. Brown was the deputy assistant director for management at OMB since 2007 and has worked at OMB since 2001. O'Malley said in a statement to Federal News Network that, "Dustin has become an integral part of my leadership team, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise."
(OMB's Brown to take on new, permanent role at SSA - Social Security Administration)

President Joe Biden has picked an intelligence community veteran to fill a key Pentagon position. Biden has nominated Tonya Wilkerson to serve as under secretary of defense for intelligence and security. Wilkerson is currently the deputy director at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Her background is in space, as she also held prominent roles at the National Reconnaissance Office. If confirmed, Wilkerson would serve as the top civilian adviser for intelligence, counterintelligence and security-related matters at the Pentagon. She would replace Ronald Moultrie, who stepped down from the post in February.
(President Biden announces key nominees - White House)

Beginning in June, the Army will discontinue its temporary promotion policy for non-commissioned officers. Army soldiers will not need a previously required level of professional military education to be eligible for promotion to non-commissioned officer ranks up through master sergeant. All non-commissioned officers’ temporary promotions will become permanent. The temporary promotion policy was originally introduced to accommodate soldiers during pregnancy and postpartum periods. It was then extended to deployed soldiers on unit missions.
(Army suspends temporary promotion policy in June - U.S. Army)

The Defense Department made a small but significant update to the requirements for vendors to protect controlled unclassified information. DoD issued a class deviation to its Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), that now requires all contractors to meet the requirements outlined in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 Revision 2, instead of the previous version. The new policy goes into effect for all contracts that include any reference to any version of SP- 800-171, not just new solicitations. NIST finalized the update to 800-171 in February 2020 and is currently reviewing comments on revision 3.
(DoD's deviation puts new requirements on contractors to protect CUI - DoD)

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is extending the comment period for its cyber incident reporting regulations by 30 days. The public will now have until July 3 to comment on the proposed rules. Industry groups had been pressing for more time to comment, citing the length and complexity of the rules. Once in effect, the regulations will require organizations across the 16 critical infrastructure sectors to report major cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours.
(Extension of comment period for CIRCIA - Federal Register)

In April, the Thrift Savings Plan posted negative returns for the first time this year, with the exception of the government securities investment G fund. This comes after the TSP posted mostly positive returns in March. The G fund increased by a small amount, about 0.03%. Notwithstanding the rest of the TSP funds seeing negative returns for April, the year-to-date returns remain positive for the rest of the funds. The common stock C index fund remains the highest year-to-date at over 6% and an almost 11% return over the last 12 months.
(TSP funds post mostly negative returns in April - Federal News Network)

The Navy officially designates Naval Identity Services as an Enterprise Information Technology Service. Naval Identity Services is now the second enterprise service within the Navy to receive this designation. The NIS enterprise service will focus on providing identity, credential and access management (ICAM) capabilities to sailors working on unclassified networks. The service plans to expand those capabilities to support secret-level access users later this year. The Navy’s Office of the Chief Information Officer will also work with the service’s comptroller to create a financial plan for the NIS expansion.
(Navy designates Naval Identity Services as enterprise IT service - Navy CIO)