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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: October 25, 2024
Army wants to cut award times to six months
(Federal News Network) The Army wants to reduce the contract awarding process from the nearly two-year cycle — a notorious bottleneck for deploying technology to the field — to less than six months, said an Army contracting official. One of the ways the service is trying to achieve this is by moving away from overly prescriptive contract requirements to a more flexible approach that focuses on providing “characteristics of need” early during its experimentation phases under Army Futures Command and allowing contractors to propose innovative solutions in return. Read More
Department of the Air Force appoints Susan Davenport as new chief data and AI officer
(Breaking Defense) The Department of the Air Force announced Tuesday that Susan Davenport will be the new chief data and artificial intelligence officer taking over for Chandra Donelson, who has been the DAF’s acting CDAO since April. Prior to Donelson, Eileen Vidrine held the position, and before that the post belonged to Gen. John Olson, DAF’s first CDAO. “Her expertise driving innovation and managing complex programs will be instrumental in shaping the future of Data and AI for the Air Force and the Space Force,” a LinkedIn post from the Department of the Air Force Chief Information Officer, said of Davenport’s appointment. Read More
Wherever contractors look, the government is looking back
(Federal News Network) Don’t say they didn’t warn you. Contractors are on notice that the General Services Administration’s Schedules programs will be under examination next year. It’s all outlined in the 2025 plan of the GSA inspector general. What to do with this information? The Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Read More
National Archives getting a big boost from AI to transform its search capabilities
(FedScoop) In the pre-GPT era of artificial intelligence, there wasn’t a ton for the National Archives and Records Administration — and its billions of unstructured documents — to do with the technology. According to Gulam Shakir, NARA’s chief technology officer, those more nascent AI tools “did not really fit” with the agency’s needs — namely the processing and management of massive “free-form” datasets lacking any logical formatting or rules. Read More
Treasury, OMB Release Final FY 2024 Budget Results
(ExecutiveGov) The deficit increased by $138 billion to $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024 and governmental receipts rose by $479 billion to $4.9 trillion, up 10 percent from FY 2023, according to the Department of the Treasury and Office of Management and Budget. In a joint release published Friday, the organizations said the rise in FY 2024 receipts can be attributed to increases in individual and corporate income taxes and social insurance and retirement receipts. Read More
A Senate bill targeting teleworkers’ locality pay now has its companion in the House
(Government Executive) A House Republican has joined a nascent effort to issue upwards of 30% pay cuts to federal employees who engage in regular telework by depriving them of their locality pay. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., last week introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act (H.R. 10014), a measure that would bar federal employees who spend at least one day per week—or 20% of their work hours—on telework from receiving the locality pay determined by the location of their official work station, instead considering them part of the “Rest of U.S.” locality pay area, regardless of where they live or work. It serves as the House companion to legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in August. Read More
Army space takes global stage, talks enduring partnership at U.K. Defence Space Conference
(Space War) In an age when space is becoming more congested and dangerous as the dependence of both military operations and civil society on space is increasing, the longstanding special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is evolving to the new frontier of space as a warfighting domain. Representatives from U.K. Space Command, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, U.S. Space Command, allied militaries, think tanks, space technology startups and other industry partners convened at the U.K. Defence Space Conference in London on Sept. 24-25, 2024 Read More
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