GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (3/30–4/3)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers a number of issues, such as the CMMC (NIST will be helping with standards for third-party assessors), research shows the Pentagon is using other buying tools 10 times more often (OTAs and SBIRs), and GSA's e-commerce plans and OPM merger.
Cyber
NextGov – Defense Contractor Cybersecurity Certifiers Launching ‘National Conversation’ Webinars
"About 3,500 people have registered for the first of a series of webinars organizers are planning to meet the high demand for knowledge of how the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program will work."
FedScoop – NIST will help create CMMC standards for third-party assessors
"The National Institute of Standards and Technology will play a “core” role in setting standards for third-party assessors to participate in the Defense Department‘s new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)."
Defense
NextGov – If Space Startups Fail, the Pentagon’s Going to Need Some New Plans
"Literally and figuratively, there’s no area of military activity that’s further away from the coronavirus than U.S. military assets in space. But the economic effects of the counter-virus lockdown are causing potentially fatal problems for some young space companies and that could threaten the Defense Department’s plans."
DefenseNews – Pentagon turns to new buying tools 10 times more often
"The amount of funding for defense research awarded through other transaction authorities have increased nearly tenfold in five years, according to a new analysis seen exclusively by Defense News. The report, by data and analytics firm Govini, shows the use of OTAs and small business innovation research contracts has expanded to the point that, in 2019, the two methods accounted for $9.6 billion, or 10 percent of the Defense Department’s research, development, test and evaluation spending."
FederalNewsNetwork – DoD plan to classify spending plans gets thumbs down from almost everyone
"The Defense Department is getting what seems like almost universal pushback on its legislative proposal to classify its spending plans for future years. The Pentagon floated the proposal for the 2021 defense authorization bill. It would hide the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) from the public, the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office. The FYDP calculates what DoD thinks it will spend on programs and services five years out from the present."
GSA
"The General Services Administration's push to create an electronic purchasing portal for federal agencies has been shoved to the sidelines by the government's more urgent demands for IT hardware and service support for telework."
GovExec – House Lawmakers Accuse GSA of Breaching Ban on Implementing OPM Merger
"Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee said that the Trump administration would violate provisions of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act blocking the planned merger of the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration if it moves forward with plans to rescind OPM’s authority to operate two federal buildings in the Washington, D.C., area."
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