GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (3/7–11)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers DARPA taps OTAs for quantum supercomputers, Pentagon's next budget focus on space and AI, Congress' spending bill for FY22, and 5 steps for cyber, and DoJ's first settlement under its Civil Cyber-Fraud initiative.
Defense
"U.S. defense researchers recently moved to partner with the private sector to strategically explore building the world’s first practical quantum supercomputer. 'There's a lot of hype in the commercial space and there's a lot of people claiming that they've figured out a path to a really big, really useful quantum computer. And we would like to listen—like, if somebody thinks that they cracked the secret code to make any quantum computer, then we would love for them to apply for this program,' Joe Altepeter, a program manager in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Defense Sciences Office told Nextgov this week. 'And we want to be really flexible in how we work with companies.'"
"A top Pentagon budget official thinks the debate on national security spending is about to “turn a corner,” as lawmakers are on the cusp of agreeing to a fiscal year 2022 spending agreement with a big increase for national defense. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is soon to release its FY 23 budget request, with space capabilities featuring as a major focal point during internal discussions, according to Defense Department Comptroller Mike McCord."
Congress
"The House on Wednesday passed a $1.5 trillion measure to set line-by-line funding for federal agencies for the rest of fiscal 2022, finally providing full-year appropriations that will boost spending at domestic agencies by nearly 7%."
"The fiscal 2022 spending legislation passed by the House this week doesn’t include any money for the Technology Modernization Fund and would slash or maintain funding for two other federal IT modernization vehicles."
Cyber
"It’s not an exaggeration to say that cybersecurity has never been more top of mind for federal agencies. Threats such as ransomware and threat actors such as adversarial nation states have agencies worried about the confidentiality of their data and the continuity of their operations. New executive orders and heightened public scrutiny further raise the stakes on hardening systems, networks and data repositories."
Justice
"Comprehensive Health Services, LLC (CHS), located in Florida, has agreed to pay $930,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by falsely representing to the State Department and the Air Force that it complied with contract requirements relating to the provision of medical services at State Department and Air Force facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan."
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