Posts from GovConDaily for 05/27/2016

Army Implements New DoD Appraisal Program for Civilian Employees

The U.S. Army has begun to transition its civilian staff into the new Defense Performance Management and Appraisal Program for Defense Department employees. The service branch said Wednesday it has transitioned and trained 3,100 Civilian Human Resources Agency staff into the new system and will continue implementation work for more than 200,000 civilians until June 2018…

Senators Seek to Elevate Cybercom to Combatant Command Through 2017 NDAA Amendment

Senators have proposed a bipartisan amendment that they plan to integrate with the fiscal year 2017 defense policy bill in an effort to make the U.S. Cyber Command as a unified combatant command within the Defense Department, Defense News reported Wednesday…

Military.com: ‘Cannibalized’ Parts to Support Carrier Strike Group in Middle East Operations

A fleet of ships including the Nimitz-class carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower that will sail to the Middle East to support airstrikes against the Islamic State group will be using second-hand parts from other operational units, Military…

Pentagon Eyes European-Built Rockets to Launch Military Satellites

Pentagon officials are investigating the use European-built rockets to launch U.S. military satellites to space as part of an effort to sever the nation’s reliance on Russian engines, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday…

NIH to Grant $142M to Mayo Clinic for Biological Sample Collection

The National Institutes of Health plans to award $142 million to the Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic to collect, store and distribute biological samples or biospecimens to support research efforts under the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort program…

Ashton Carter: DoD Should Accelerate Tech Dev’t Efforts

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has visited the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island, to receive a classified briefing on the facility’s unmanned undersea vehicle technology, the Associated Press reported Wednesday…

Nextgov: Federal CIO Tony Scott Pushes for Potential $12B IT Modernization Fund

Federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott has pushed for legislation on a modernization fund worth a potential $12 billion over the next decade that agencies could use to update current information technology systems, Nextgov reported Wednesday…

Senate Committee OKs $574B Defense Budget for Fiscal 2017

The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a bill that would authorize $515.9 billion for the Defense Department‘s base expenditures and another $58.6 billion wartime overseas contingency programs in fiscal 2017, Defense News reported Thursday…

HSToday: HPE Unveils Encryption Offering for Public Sector Clients; Albert Biketi Comments

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has released encryption and tokenization offerings intended to help organizations and government agencies protect large amounts of data, Homeland Security Today reported Thursday…

NIST-Led Team Unveils Standard to Characterize Production Processes’ Environmental Impacts

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has led a public-private team to develop an international standard that aims to provide manufacturers with a systematic method on how to outline the environmental aspects of any production process…