The Wrap: AI Task Force Report Incoming; PMA Victory Lap; Senators Query DoD on Salt Typhoon

Welcome to The Wrap for Thursday, December 5!

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

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AI Task Force Report Incoming

The House Artificial Intelligence Task Force is getting ready to issue its final report later this week, and task force co-chair Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., said it will focus on breaking up regulations into “bite-sized pieces” and not blocking future advances in AI technology. The congressman previewed the report at the Amazon-sponsored Capitol Hill Cloud Day on Dec. 4, saying he hopes it will serve as a guide for future congressional efforts in the AI arena. “This is obviously not the last word in AI, it is just the first beginning of the first word in AI,” said Rep. Obernolte, who added, “we think it is foolish to believe that we know enough about AI and the direction AI is going to move in the next few years to be able to do an effective job completely regulating with one bill next year.”?The congressman made a strong pitch to the incoming Trump administration to maintain the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), which he said “is going to be very critical for the success of artificial intelligence in the United States” in part because AISI can promote U.S. AI safety standards on the international level.

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PMA Victory Lap

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) leaders took a victory lap late Wednesday around some of the Federal workforce and citizen experience accomplishments that have resulted from their work on the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) published in November 2021 that set out strategies for improvement in those areas, along with Federal contracting. On the workforce front, OMB’s Deputy Director for Management Jason Miller talked about the PMA’s drive to shape the future of Federal work and make the government a model employer. “Ultimately, progress and outcomes are about people and teams,” Miller said. “Everything we do is a result of the people and the teams that are doing the work, and if we focus on the people and the teams, we will get better results and better outcomes.” OPM Acting Director Rob Shriver joined the celebration to highlight a few wins stemming from the PMA, including that Federal employee engagement?hit an all-time high?this year. He also said OPM is continuing to work to implement?skills-based hiring, and the start of that effort by focusing on the 2210 series – which accounts for nearly 100,000 current Federal employees working in IT, cybersecurity, and AI roles. Please do click through for the whole story.

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Senators Query DoD on Salt Typhoon

Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are pushing for an investigation of what they called the United States Department of Defense ’s (DoD) “failure to secure its unclassified telephone communications from foreign espionage” in the form of the China-sponsored Salt Typhoon telecom network hacks, according to a?letter?sent Wednesday to DoD Inspector General Robert Storch. “DoD’s failure to secure its unclassified voice, video, and text communications with end-to-end encryption technology has left it needlessly vulnerable to foreign espionage,” the lawmakers wrote. “Moreover, although DoD is among the largest buyers of wireless telephone service in the United States, it has failed to use its purchasing power to require cyber defenses and accountability from wireless carriers,” they said. On Tuesday, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials?told reporters?that they are “still figuring out just how deeply” the Salt Typhoon hackers have wormed their way into networks, and “where they’ve penetrated.” Telco networks known to have been breached by the hackers include those operated by AT&T , Verizon , and Lumen Technologies .

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Air Force Info Dominance Chief

The United States Air Force ’s brand-new Information Dominance Systems Center has lined up its inaugural director in the form of Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey, who has been nominated by the White House to the new post. The center is a key component of the service’s?“re-optimization for the Great Power competition”?initiative, announced by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in February 2024, and designed to reform and reorganize both the Air Force and Space Force to better position the services to counter the growing threat from China. If confirmed by the Senate, Cropsey would be elevated to the rank of lieutenant general and also serve as the Air Force’s director of command, control, communications, and battle management (C3BM) programs. For the past two years, Cropsey has led the service’s C3BM program executive office, acting as the key figure for efforts related to the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative.

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].