National Institutes of Health launches $50B governmentwide IT contract vehicle

The National Institutes of Health has issued a request for proposals for its long-awaited governmentwide acquisition vehicle that will give up to $50 billion to federal contractors over a 10-year period.

The CIO-SP4 vehicle has 10 task areas including IT services, CIO support, cybersecurity, digital government and cloud services and software development.

It will be managed by the NIH’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) and is designed to meet agencies’ general information technology, biomedical and health IT needs across the federal government.

CIO-SP4’s $50 billion ceiling represents an increase from the previously-launched CIO-SP3 vehicle, which allotted $20 billion to IT contracts over a 10-year period. CIO-SP3 was launched in June 2012 and runs until May 30, 2022.

The new contract has a five-year base ordering period and a five-year extension option.

Contract vehicles permit flexibility at the task order level and acquisition agreements where a quick turnaround time is required. NIH will award spots on the larger vehicle to prime contractors that can then compete for task orders under the scope of CIO-SP4.

Commenting on the launch of the contract, NITAAC acting Director Brian Goodger said: “CIO-SP4 builds upon the success of CIO-SP3 and takes into account several lessons learned that we believe will enhance the experience of our federal agency customers and contract holders alike.

“We are excited about the possibility CIO-SP4 holds for revolutionizing the way agencies acquire IT.”

Goodger did want to remind agencies that CIO-SP3 is still a good option for their IT needs. “However, we want to remind agencies that while they anticipate CIO-SP4, CIO-SP3 still remains a vital option for their procurement needs. CIO-SP3 expires in May 2022, has ample ceiling room and awards issued before the expiration of CIO-SP3 can be extended up to five years,” he added.

NITAAC is a federal executive agent and is authorized by the Office of Management and Budget to administer three governmentwide IT acquisition contracts: CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business, and CIO-CS. These contracts, along with NASA’s SEWP and the General Services Administration’s various IT vehicles, comprise the federal government’s governmentwide acquisition vehicles, or GWACs as they’re called.

Satellite company Viasat appoints new head of gov systems

Satellite company Viasat has promoted Craig Miller to be its head of government systems after serving as the business unit’s chief technology officer for four years.

Miller will now oversee all federal sales and operations, a part of the Viasat that exceeds $1 billion in annual revenue. He replaces Ken Peterman, who will serve as an advisor to the Carlsbad, California-based company’s CEO.

Viasat provides a range of tech and services to the government, with public record showing contracts with all military departments and combat support agencies like the Defense Information Systems Agency.  It is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and reported annual revenues of $2.3bn for the fiscal year 2020.

Last May, Viasat won a nearly $1 billion contract with the Navy to work on the department’s Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS). The work included creating new network and data links for the Navy’s tactical radio system.

Miller was involved in building the military’s Link 16 network, a global tactical network used by NATO countries in combat, He also has experience in cybersecurity and network security services.

The U.S. government has increasingly relied on commercial space and satellite companies to build global networks such as Link 16. The military is now working to update that network with new “network of network” systems that will be more interoperable and allow more data to flow, technologies that will rely heavily on satellites.

Quantum industry partnerships key to power grid optimization: DOE official

The Department of Energy (DOE) needs more public-private partnerships if it hopes to advance quantum information science (QIS) to the point where it can optimize the U.S. power grid, said commercialization executive Rima Kasia Oueid.

Kasia Oueid’s Office of Technology Transitions was created by Congress in 2015 and tasked with expanding the commercial impact of DOE’s research and development portfolio, and that includes accelerating adoption of quantum computing.

Increased energy consumption across the U.S. has pushed the DOE, through its National Laboratories, and industry partners, to develop new quantum computing technologies. It is hoped that such technology will help the country adapt to ever-changing energy demands and renewable energy sources.

“There’s been growing interest in the energy sector around combinatorial optimization, particularly for management of the grid for example,” Kasia Oueid said, speaking at ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference on Tuesday.

“Quantum-based optimization algorithms could be combined with classical, or at least verified through classical means, and could provide us some degree of comfort earlier in the algorithm development space when applied to these optimization-type use cases.”

Both Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories use D-Wave System’s 2000Q quantum annealing computer for solving combinatorial optimization problems facing utility grids, electric vehicles, supply chains and risk assessments.

Solving quantum encryption over long distances could help different utilities to integrate energy flow across facilities and devices, while keeping electric grid communications safe from cyberattacks.

Experts say that developing quantum cryptography in tandem with the latest generation of supercomputers is necessary to guarantee U.S. national security.

Quantum-safe cryptography efforts are “well underway” developing algorithms that IT companies will ultimately sell in packages integrating them into the internet, said Carl Williams, deputy director of the Physical Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

China is also investing in quantum key distribution (QKD) for encryption, which could pose a threat to U.S. national security if they alone harnessed the technology.

“We don’t know what we don’t know about the benefits that could come along from working on that technology,” Kasia Oueid said.

DOE has spent more then $1 billion on QIS the last couple years, banking on fact that even a two-time increase in computing speeds could provide a significant market advantage.

And while all the major players like IBM, Microsoft, Google and Honeywell are in the quantum space, so too are an “amazing” amount of startups like Rigetti Computing, Zapata Computing and QC Ware, Williams said.

“We were the first to Mars, but China already has a rover up there so now they’re second to Mars,” said Gabe Chang, quantum ambassador at IBM. “So understanding our environment, the awareness, understanding quantum areas for development [is key].”

The National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 required NIST to establish a consortium for quantum economic development to build out the supply chain, which remains in its infancy.

That supply chain will be global in nature because the U.S. simply won’t be a leader in developing all the components necessary for quantum computers.

“We will not end up owning all the key technologies necessary to build these kind of devices,” Williams said.

Quantum computers remain “noisy, intermediate-scale” systems that are not yet error correctable and will take another decade to perfect, Williams added. Quantum networks are even farther out because components technology from memory to repeaters that is required.

Optimizing the electric grid isn’t DOE’s only reason for investing heavily in quantum computing.

The Office of Science has a funding opportunity announcement out for researchers to build apps using quantum algorithms to solve self-fusion, while the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy thinks quantum-enable AI could optimize manufacturing processes.

“All of them have interest in quantum for different reasons,” Kasia Oueid said.

Trade group urges Congress to include funding for cybersecurity in infrastructure bill

The Professional Services Council (PSC) has written to lawmakers, urging them to include funding for cybersecurity and IT in President Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill.

In a letter sent on Friday to leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, the trade body said it was “disappointed” that the administration had not requested additional funding to address cybersecurity or IT modernization for federal government and industry as part of the package.

“Given recent cyberattacks—including the SolarWinds breach of government infrastructure and the recent attacks on energy pipelines and water treatment facilities—and the President’s May 12, 2021, Executive Order on cybersecurity, the need for resources to adapt and operate securely in the continuously changing threat environment continues to grow,” the trade group said in its missive. “PSC and our member companies support funding to match these needs and requirements. This includes funding for CISA and the Technology Modernization Fund, as well as agency-specific funding to modernize outdated programs and legacy systems.”

PSC represents the government technology and professional services industry and has over 400 member companies.

In its letter to lawmakers, PSC called also for the bill to remove “nonvalue-added regulatory burdens” from government contractors through a focus on streamlined contracting and permitting processes.

The group also called for additional investment and funding for research and development through the new proposed legislation.

“PSC is hopeful that the Congress will continue to invest in and advance technologies that provide long-term solutions for U.S. economic competitiveness and national security, and to address how these investments will help federal agencies meet mission needs,” it said in the note.

Democrats and Republicans continue to negotiate over the American Jobs Plan after President Biden last month issued an initial $2.25 trillion proposal.

The GOP has since responded with a $568 billion infrastructure counteroffer, and last Friday the White House put forward a new $1.7 trillion offer, which settles for the $65 billion Republicans proposed for broadband funding and pares back funding for road and bridge construction.

Department of Defense seeks new AI systems to power drone group work

The military wants its drones to work together and is working to create an automated network of unmanned aerial systems that can accomplish complex tasks with the help of artificial intelligence.

To do this, the Silicon Valley outpost of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Defense Innovation Unit, has posted a solicitation for commercial algorithms that could help groups of drones work together in flight.

The solicitation is specific to networking and decision-making algorithms, rather than computer vision or autopilot systems, and is designed to turn single aircrafts into networks of connected platforms that can work together.

“Solutions must be capable of coordinating and prioritizing actions in complex and contested environments,” the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) solicitation states. “While these algorithms extend to a variety of use cases, this specific prototype evaluation will be focused on coordinating long-range, high-speed, fixed-wing aerial platforms operating in contested environments.”

The solicitation marks a step forward in the DOD’s on going development of autonomous systems and their integration into operations. Currently, most drones are piloted by service members, who keep the drones flying by using joysticks or software. This program, along with others such as the Air Force’s “Loyal Wingman” program, are experimenting with algorithms that use algorithms to decide how a group of drones should proceed.

The request touches on another tech area of interest for the DOD: digital engineering, which allows tech to be tested in virtual environment simulations, before being trialled in the real world. The algorithms that DIU is looking for will need to fit into a “Networked collaborative autonomous (NCA) air platforms in a digital engineering environment,” according to the solicitation.

The program will have test events created in a digital engineering virtual environment,  according to the solicitation.

“The program will be structured as a series of prototype events where selected performers will deploy their algorithms in an unclassified, live-virtual-constructive development environment based upon the Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration, and Modeling (AFSIM),” it stated.

Pentagon tech chief nominee wants more upfront funding for programs

The Biden administration’s nominee for the role of top technology official at the Department of Defense wants to see an overhaul of budgeting processes that could allow for more innovation and lower sustainment costs.

At a confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Heidi Shyu told Senators that extra early-stage funding for the DOD’s weapons platforms, tech projects and other systems would keep programs running and help to curtail their costs in the long term.

“Today, sustainment makes up 70% of total weapon system cost, with development and procurement making up 30%.

“DOD should strive to flip this ratio and invest more in the development of new technologies than it does in the sustainment of legacy systems,” Shyu told lawmakers.

Such a change would represent a shift in funding practices, and a move towards more agile systems development.

The technology leader was speaking alongside nominees to the posts of Air Force Secretary, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at the DOD, and Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at the DOD.

Air Force Secretary nominee Frank Kendall agreed with Shyu, and added that for the USAF such an approach to program funding would permit greater experimentation and allow for more failures.

“Having the discipline to do the things that are necessary up front that would lower sustainment costs is critical,” he said.

Additional early-stage funding permits more agile development of modular systems, which ultimately can make it easier and cheaper to fix errors that arise at a later stage. Currently, programs run through a two-year budgetary cycle where requests need to be proposed by the DOD to Congress before they can get off the ground. At the current pace of development, military technology is often outdated by the time it is fully implemented.

The two-year budgeting cycle has hit software acquisition especially hard, as code needs frequent updates to patch security flaws and bugs.

Shyu’s job, if confirmed, would be to oversee all research and engineering projects, from basic research to advanced artificial intelligence work. Shyu has a background in both tech and contracting. Previously she served as the head of acquisition, technology and logistics for the Army during the Obama administration.

Addressing lawmakers on Tuesday, Shyu also advocated for the use of rapid prototyping contracts, like Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs), which she said could be used more throughout the department to navigate around the budget cycle. According to the senior tech leader, the DOD would also benefit significantly from flexible research techniques used by the private sector, such as “plug and play”.

“There is absolutely a gap in terms of our ability to purchase tech.

“Software is ubiquitous in all of our weapons systems and we have to think about how we can develop software continuously and test it continuously,” she added.

If confirmed as Air Force Secretary, Kendall will oversee the vast, highly technical suite of programs in the Air and Space Force, from new network-of-network systems like Advanced Battle Management System to jet fighters and satellites.

GSA tech procurement leader Nakasone to depart June 1

Federal IT procurement leader Keith Nakasone will leave his role at the General Services Administration at the end of May.

He departs after working at the agency since 2017 as deputy assistant commissioner of acquisition management within the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC).

Nakasone’s last day is June 1, leaving GSA after 32 years in the federal government to take up a role in the private sector.

Following his departure, Nakasone’s responsibilities will be taken on in an acting capacity by Cheryl Thornton-Cameron, who is executive director of ITC Schedule Contract Operations at the agency.

The IT Category team is a workstream within the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service that develops contracts for technology services and is focused on limiting duplicate purchases across agencies.

Previously, Nakasone was a senior procurement executive at the Federal Communications Commission, and before that was a technical director within the Defense Information Systems Agency’s procurement directorate. At DISA he has also served as chief of strategic planning.

During his tenure at GSA, Nakasone spearheaded the introduction of new requirements to federal government IT contracts to address supply chain risk and prohibit the use of telecommunications equipment and services produced by Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.

Earlier this month, the GSA launched an industry consultation over plans to issue a multiple-award cloud blanket purchase agreement as part of a government-wide acquisition strategy.

Next Generation Computing Act proposed to speed U.S. supercomputer development

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., has introduced legislation to bolster one of two high-priority, advanced scientific computing programs at the Department of Energy (DOE).

The Next Generation Computing Research and Development Act would create the Beyond Exascale Computing Program for developing systems with capabilities that exceed those of the fastest supercomputers in the U.S., set to start arriving at the National Laboratories later this year.

The proposed legislation was introduced last Thursday in the House of Representatives, and comes as U.S. lawmakers devote increasing attention to the country’s supercomputing arms race with China. The DOE is targeting the launch of a new exascale computing platform, which is known as Frontier, in October this year.

Exascale refers to a computing system that can perform at least one exaflop – or one quintillion (a billion-billion) calculations per second.

DOE has spent $460 million on its Exascale Computing Project to date. And the proposed successor program would refocus those efforts on new computing architectures, models and simulations, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.

Commenting on the proposed legislation, Obernolte said: “The future of innovation lies in our ability to unlock new answers about the workings of our world.”

“Those answers will only come with the help of the next generation of supercomputers,” he added.

Obernolte’s bill would establish a special energy efficient computing program, where national labs partner with industry and academia to develop technology and applications that decrease supercomputers’ energy needs. Federal partners would be selected through a competitive process.

DOE would have a year from the bill’s passage to report back on the progress of both new programs.

The bill also requires an upgrade to a user facility designed for the secure transport of researchers’ data, as well as a workforce development program out of the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. It would also create a computational science fellowship with a $21 million-a-year grant.

The IRS wants help breaking into seized cryptowallets

As the popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin ceases to fade, the federal government is focused on obtaining the technological know-how to seize digital cash and the cryptowallets that hold the keys needed to access it. The problem is, once federal agents seize the cryptowallets in investigations, they can rarely obtain the necessary keys.

The IRS wants the help of industry in researching techniques to exploit the seized digital wallets, it says in a new request for information. Cracking the cryptographic keys that keep these wallets secure can be so difficult that owners themselves frequently lock themselves out and pay hefty rewards to researchers who can help them break the code.

“It is a priority to combine the leading-edge cybersecurity research available on the topics of embedded hardware exploitation with the disciplined, established science of digital forensics,” says the document. “The explicit outcome of this requirement is to tame the cybersecurity research into measured, repeatable, consistent digital forensics processes that can be trained and followed in a digital forensics’ laboratory.”

This is of great interest to the IRS’s Criminal Investigation unit as it tracks down and enforces cases of fraud and other violations of tax law, such as the failure to pay taxes on cryptocurrencies, the agency said in a separate contracting document from March. The unit also assists other law enforcement agencies with money laundering and narcotics investigations.

The difficult-to-track nature of cryptocurrencies make them popular among criminals seeking, who can use them anonymously for illicit transactions. For example, the DarkSide hackers responsible for the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack allegedly collected their $5 million ransom payment in the form of bitcoin.

“The emergence and rapid adoption of cryptographic currencies over the last decade has created a gap in digital forensic capabilities. The decentralization and anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies has fostered an environment for the storage and exchange of something of value, outside of the traditional purview of law enforcement and regulatory organizations,” the IRS says in the request for information. “While research exists on the analysis and tracking of blockchain transactions, there is a portion of this cryptographic puzzle that continues to elude organizations – millions, perhaps even billions of dollars, exist within cryptowallets, but the value cannot be realized because of the challenging cryptographic problem.”

It continues: “Since hardware cryptographic wallets contain digital data – public and private cryptographic keys – these small hardware computing devices may provide crucial data in investigations.”

The IRS hopes to validate existing research into breaking into cryptowallets and also to identify new methods, document the processes to replicate them and create training for the agencies criminal forensics specialists.

The IRS did not comment on the procurement outside of the RFI.

The RFI comes as the tax agency places a greater focus in recent years on the emergence of cryptocurrencies. In 2019, agency documents showed it began training agents to hunt for cryptowallets. And earlier this year, the IRS launched “Operation Hidden Treasure” to sniff out people who are leaving crypto-related income off of their tax returns by tracking crypto transactions.

The federal government’s procurement portal leaves beta with focus on data security

The federal government’s one-stop-shop for contracting activities SAM.gov dropped the “beta” from its name Monday.

The General Services Administration, which hosts the website, finalized the integration of the original System for Award Management (SAM) system — which featured entity registration, entity reporting and disaster response registry — with functions from beta.sam.gov, like contracting opportunities, on Monday to create a single system spanning all elements of federal contracting.

GSA made about 50 improvements to SAM.gov from its beta version based on 35,000 pieces of user feedback, with a focus on data security, during the transition.

Changes include single sign-on across datasets, optional identity proofing for entity administrators via login.gov that’ll become mandatory in fiscal 2022, and user roles controlling information access.

“We heard from our users that data security was critical to them and were asked to ensure our products include the latest security controls,” Katherine Rollins, project analyst at GSA, told FedScoop. “With over 734,000 active registrations as of April 2021, we understand the balance of data transparency and data protection.”

SAM.gov now allows users to check entity registration status and search reports and exclusions directly from the homepage, so long as they sign in. More than 54,000 registrations were started or updated in the last month, and a new “Getting Started” page walks users through the four main steps while explaining requirements and timelines.

GSA is in the process of assigning every organization that does business with the government a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), and SAM.gov displays UEIs along with their current Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number — slated for retirement in April 2022. UEIs are now visible on contract opportunities if the corresponding entity won an award.

“By assigning the UEI in the entity record, we’re enabling those doing business with the government to begin the conversion now,” Rollins said. “Making it visible almost a year before it becomes authoritative gives you time and flexibility to prepare.”

SAM.gov’s search function remains a work in progress since being one of the first features added to the website in 2017. Users can now manage saved searches across domains in one place, and existing filters have been streamlined and new ones added.

Users still want more advanced keyword options based on focus groups that have provided feedback on more than 50 iterations of the search function.

“The search is working for a lot of our current users, so we don’t want to make a change that breaks it for them,” Rollins said. “But we do want to allow for those advanced keyword operators in the search, and that is a huge ask from our user base.”

According to Rollins, easing users into the transition has been a priority for the agency.

GSA migrated all user roles and permissions and entity-related data ahead of the switch while ensuring existing beta.SAM.gov logins still worked.

“This integration couldn’t interrupt the work or the business of the federal government or the work that the entities needed to do,” Rollins said. “In order to help with this — because we have over 1.5 million registered users as of April 2021 — it was essential to create a seamless transition for our users.”

While beta.SAM.gov is no more, six remaining legacy award systems still need to be merged as part of GSA’s larger Integrated Award Environment initiative.

Wage Determinations Online and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance were the first two systems retired, followed by FedBizOpps.gov and SAM.gov. The remaining systems are: the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation, Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System, Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, Past Performance Information Retrieval System, Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System, and FFATA Sub-award Reporting System.

“The new SAM.gov is the foundation for more improvements to come,” Rollins added. “As more systems merge, you’ll begin to see even more connections within the data.”