Posted by
Cost Estimating NewsBrief: March 31, 2023
Senate committee advances open source software and digital identity bills
(FCW) The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced a series of bills on Wednesday aimed at improving government operations around data management, digital identity and securing critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. The legislation advanced out of the committee included a bipartisan bill reintroduced last week by Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) that instructs the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to develop a publicly accessible risk framework on open source software components for government and industry. Read More
Workbook for How Changes in Economic Conditions Might Affect the Federal Budget: 2023 to 2033
(Congressional Budget Office) This workbook allows users to define and analyze alternative economic scenarios by specifying differences in the values of four economic variables—productivity growth, labor force growth, interest rates, and inflation—relative to the values underlying the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent projections. Those projections were published in The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2023 to 2033. CBO has long published “rules of thumb” that provide an idea of how changes in key economic variables would affect its projections. Read More
White House Forum Provides Government, Industry Leaders Venue to Discuss Space Systems Cybersecurity
(ExecutiveGov) The Office of the National Cyber Director and the National Space Council hosted a forum on Tuesday to enable government and industry executives to discuss ways to improve cybersecurity in the space sector. Representatives from industry cited the need to field quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms and ensure the security of open source libraries, while government officials mentioned the importance of having comprehensive guidance that could help developers and operators improve the cybersecurity of space systems, the White House said Tuesday. Read More
NASA Leader Looks to Artemis II and Beyond for Agency’s Future
(NextGov) While discussing what’s next for space, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized the importance of the Artemis programs, during an Axios event on Wednesday. Nelson noted the agency hopes to have people on Mars by 2040. He also stated that NASA will be making an announcement on Monday about the first crewed Artemis mission, which will have three Americans and one Canadian on it. Artemis II will fly astronauts around the moon and will be the “testing of the human support systems,” Nelson said. Read More
Department of Air Force tackling data, workforce issues at the ‘heart’ of AI readiness
(Federal News Network) The Defense Department is looking at 2025 as a milestone to make better use of artificial intelligence. To meet that goal, the Air Force and Space Force are looking to upskill airmen and guardians to better understand and work with this emerging tech. The Department of the Air Force is also working with the private sector and academia on projects to better use of DoD data needed to power AI algorithms. Chief Data and AI Officer Eileen Vidrine returned to the department in January 2023, after serving as a senior strategic adviser for data to Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martarona. Read More
DIA Seeks Info for AI Technical Assistance, IT Support Requirement
(ExecutiveGov) The Defense Intelligence Agency has begun market research to identify sources capable of providing technical assistance and information technology support to expand the agency’s artificial intelligence products and capabilities. A request for information notice posted Friday on SAM.gov states that DIA is looking to build an AI capability in two areas: career development and infrastructure and tools integration. Desired contributions include technical assistance and subject matter expertise for AI training, recruiting and infrastructure requirements; logistics and record management; configuration management; database administration; and support to the DIA AI Defense Intelligence Enterprise. Read More
CBO Releases Infographics About the Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2022
(Congressional Budget Office) Each year, CBO releases a set of four budget infographics that provide a detailed look at the past fiscal year as well as broader trends over the past few decades. Today, CBO published the latest infographics showing the federal budget results in fiscal year 2022. These infographics help people understand how much the government spends and takes in each year and what programs and revenue sources account for the largest portions of those budgetary flows. The first two infographics (which feature the budgetary overview and mandatory spending) show that Social Security and Medicare were the major drivers of mandatory spending in 2022; combined, spending for those programs eclipsed discretionary spending, which is presented in the third infographic. Read More
ICEAA’s NewsBrief is a collection of articles relevant to the cost estimating and analysis community that is delivered weekly to current ICEAA members. To advertise in NewsBrief, contact iceaa@iceaaonline.org.