• President-elect Donald Trump tapped businessman John Phelan to serve as the next secretary of the Navy, saying Phelan will “put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else.” Phelan is the co-founder and chairman of Rugger Management LLC, a private investment firm. He has no prior military experience and if confirmed, Phelan would be the first person to lead the service without having served since 2009. If confirmed, he would replace current Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro. Phelan is the second major Pentagon pick. Trump tapped Pete Hegseth, former Army National Guard officer and former Fox News host, as the next defense secretary.
  (Trump picks businessman John Phelan as the next Navy secretary - Trump Vance transition statement )
• Army is looking for about 300 junior officers to voluntarily transfer to other branches of the service. It’s an extension of a pilot program the service started last year as it moved lieutenants from the infantry and combat branches to parts of the Army that were understaffed. This year, the service is looking to fill understrength positions in the adjutant General, air defense, finance, logistics, and signal corps. Officials are accepting rebranching applications through mid-February.
  (Army looks for volunteers to transfer to understaffed branches - Army Human Resources Command)
• Improper payments across the federal government hit a 10-year low according to new data released by the Office of Management and Budget. The governmentwide improper payment rate fell to less than 4% in fiscal 2024. Medicaid reduced its improper payments by about $19 billion last year. Improper payments surged at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but have been on the decline since then. Improper payments cover overpayments underpayments and even payments made to the right recipient in the right amount but not following agency procedures.
  (OMB releases annual data showing lowest governmentwide improper payment rate since 2014 - White House)
• The Army is bringing more standardization to its cybersecurity authorization practices. A new policy from Army CIO Leo Garciga lays out new roles and responsibilities for system authorizing officials, for cyber evaluators and for system owners. Garciga said improving the Army's type authorization under its Risk Management Framework is foundational for creating Unified Network Operations. The memo details nine responsibilities for system authorizing officials. It outlines three roles for the control assessors or cyber evaluators and five responsibilities for the receiving organization or mission owners. Garciga said this new policy is step one of a bigger effort to promote better cyber communications between authorizing officials and business system owners.
  (Amplifying guidance for type authorization under Army Risk Management Framework - Army CIO)

        Learn how federal agencies are preparing to help agencies gear up for AI in our latest Executive Briefing, sponsored by ThunderCat Technology.

• The Coast Guard issues new cyber risk management requirements for Chinese-made ship-to-shore cranes. The Maritime Security directive, released last week, builds upon a mandate from February. The notice instructs all owners and operators of Chinese-made ship-to-shore cranes to contact their local captain of the port or district commander to get a copy of the directive. Chinese-made make up 80% of all cranes operating across the U.S. ports. The public notice said these cranes can be “controlled, serviced, and programmed from remote locations,” which can leave those cranes vulnerable to exploitation.
  (Coast Guard adds cyber risk management requirements for Chinese-made cranes - Federal News Network)
• In the five years since the Justice Department launched its Procurement Collusion Strike Force, the agency has obtained over 60 convictions for crimes involving over $575 million worth of government contracts and kickbacks. In marking this anniversary, DoJ said the Strike Force has uncovered price-fixing, bid-rigging, criminal monopolization and other corrupt practices that have inflated costs for everything from national defense contracts to critical infrastructure projects. Justice said if the government eliminated bid rigging from public procurement, it could help reduce procurement prices by 20% or more. DoJ credits the use of advanced technology and data analytics in detecting antitrust violations.
  (Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter delivers remarks at the Procurement Collusion Strike Force’s fifth anniversary event - Justice Department)
• Federal contractors may be about to feel more pressure to increase their use of small business subcontracts. A new memo to agencies from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy said the government needs to do more to build a bigger marketplace of small, domestic vendors. It outlines a dozen steps agencies need to be thinking about to incentivize prime contractors to build more small subcontracts into their bids. OFPP said only about 62% of federal contracts met their small subcontracting goals in fiscal 2023.
  (OFPP memo calls for increase in small business subcontracts - Office of Federal Procurement Policy)
• Plans for a next-generation governmentwide travel and expense management platform are coming into focus. The General Services Administration awarded a 15-year contract to IBM to cover planning, authorizing, booking and vouchering for travel expenses as part of the agency’s new platform ETSNext. The ETSNext launch is the first time GSA will provide travel and expense functions as a shared service to civilian federal agencies GSA and IBM will start working with agencies this fiscal year to transition to ETSNext. All agencies complete the transition by June 2027.
  (GSA selects IBM to provide technology-managed service for governmentwide travel and expense management - Federal News Network)

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