Government
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced a major milestone this week with the removal of more than 100 facilities in Tennessee and Texas that date back to the Manhattan Project era of nuclear development.
Today, nearly 60 percent of the NNSA’s facilities are more than 40... Read More »
On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate Center of Excellence’s (COE) Borders, Trade, and Immigration Institute (BTI) announced the release of a report on cross-border e-commerce.
Working with the University of Houston, the report looked at... Read More »
After days of pressure on the U.S. government to respond with aid for the surging COVID-19 crisis in India, an arrangement is underway that will see the deployment of vaccines in the coming weeks, as well as health advisors, raw materials, personal protective equipment (PPE), and funding.... Read More »
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced last week a bill designed to bolster cyberattack resources and better coordination for serious breaches risking domestic safety and security.
The Cyber Response and Recovery Act would help to improve the federal response to cyber... Read More »
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH) recently reintroduced a measure they said is designed to bolster domestic personal protective equipment (PPE) production.
The Make PPE in America Act would enhance efforts to onshore production of personal protective equipment (PPE), hereby... Read More »
Following a recommended pause due to rare cases of severe blood clots among those administered the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are encouraging use to continue.
The announcement followed... Read More »
U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rick Larsen (D-WA), chair of the Subcommittee on Aviation, joined 15 of their colleagues in introducing the Health Flights Act of 2021 on Thursday.
The legislation would create a set of... Read More »
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers are espousing the benefits of a device capable of detecting biothreats from samples such as blood, water, CSF, food, and animal samples.
The Portable EnGineered Analytic Sensor with aUtomated Sampling (PEGASUS) is a miniaturized waveguide-based... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently introduced a measure designed to respond to the migrant influx at the southern border.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) joined Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) in introducing the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, maintaining the... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced legislation last week that would strengthen domestic manufacturing efforts, particularly for personal protective equipment (PPE) leased through long-term Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) contracts.
The pair, who represent the Ranking... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced last week the U.S. Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Review Act to demand a study of the nation’s reliance on foreign nations for the pharmaceutical supply chain.
The bill would require a study produced by the Federal Trade... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives advanced Wednesday legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), that would provide transit security grant recipients flexibility in how they use the grants while establishing performance periods.
The Transit Security Grant Program Flexibility... Read More »
Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders have expressed support for enforcing the international norm against chemical weapons, particularly the Assad regime’s illegal use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jim Risch (R-ID), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently introduced a measure designed to prevent adversaries from acquiring land near military bases, which they use to finance regimes and place military installations at risk.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Tony Gonzales... Read More »
A bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and John Thune (R-SD) this week seeks to maintain the U.S. government’s edge in the modern world by establishing scholarships to encourage students enrolled in artificial intelligence programs to join the federal workforce.
Endorsed by the... Read More »
Hundreds of non-hospitalized volunteers are being enrolled in a Phase 2/3 National Institutes of Health (NIH)-run trial of the SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. creation SAB-185, a polyclonal antibody therapeutic meant to counter COVID-19.
The trial is known as ACTIV-2, part of the Accelerating COVID-19... Read More »
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) have successfully designed and conducted a study to optimize methods for collecting and measure small amounts of the Ebola virus in... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently forwarded correspondence to President Joe Biden encouraging the expansion of nuclear weapons dialogue with Russia.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), as well Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA) and John Garamendi (D-CA) are spearheading a congressional push... Read More »
Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) are espousing the benefits of the Navy awarding a contract to Huntington Ingalls that will result in an amphibious warship.
Officials said $107,194,022 has been earmarked to purchase long-lead-time materials in advance of the construction of... Read More »
Responding to the rise in white supremacist and racist violence in the United States over the last few years, the Center for American Progress (CAP) and McCain Institute for International Learning have issued a joint, national strategy to curb the domestic threat.
“It’s time to get serious... Read More »
U. S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE), co-chairs of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, introduced legislation Monday to ensure federal firefighters receive financial benefits if they contract a disease in the line of duty.
The Federal Firefighter Fairness Act of 2021 would... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have made 11 tentative selections for new reimbursable services agreements, noting the effort would enhance security, promote cross-border trade and facilitate domestic essential travel.
“Reimbursable services agreements are a fundamental... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded contracts to FLIR Systems, Leidos, and Charles River Analytics to create lightweight materials and more adaptable countermeasures for equipment protective against chemical and biological threats.
The problem is, while... Read More »
Several over-the-counter drugs could potentially find new lives treating COVID-19 symptoms, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced this week that $155 million would be invested into a phase three trial of up to seven self-administered medications to that end.
It will be a... Read More »
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Acting Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Kasia Mendelsohn met virtually with the Sudanese Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority on Thursday to discuss Sudan’s efforts to effectively and safely regulate that... Read More »
During the recently conducted House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s World Wide Threat hearing, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) raised questions that included examining domestic violent extremism foreign support.
The effort in which Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril... Read More »
Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced last week bills to enhance the nation's ability to be globally competitive within the quantum information science (QIS) realm.
Sen. John Thune's (R-SD) Quantum Network Infrastructure and Workforce Development Act would strengthen... Read More »
In response to the $1.7 billion investment tacked onto the American Rescue Plan to address COVID-19 variants, the Biden administration last week released a plan to rapidly invest those funds into genomic sequencing, innovation partnerships, and a new health data infrastructure.
From the total,... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked last week the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the sole use of the monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab against COVID-19.
“Based on its ongoing analysis of emerging scientific data, specifically the sustained increase of SARS-CoV-2... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Rick Scott (R-FL) joined forces to introduce legislation Thursday that would ban all federal employees from using TikTok on government devices.
While the U.S. Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and... Read More »
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) introduced last week the Eradicate Crossing of Illegal Tunnels (EXIT) Act, which expedites efforts to address cross border tunnels, removing red tape preventing law enforcement from acting.
Hartzler said the bill would empower Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)... Read More »
A group of lawmakers recently reintroduced the No First Use Act, which establishes that U.S. policy is not to use nuclear weapons as a means of warfare first.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), chairman of the House Armed... Read More »
To provide real-time updates on federal actions that could help defend against biological threats, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense has created an interactive recommendations tracker of completed, in-progress, and items of inaction.
“This new and interactive tracker will build on the... Read More »
A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent nearly $1 billion assessing whether other countries’ capacity to address infectious disease threats before the... Read More »
President Joe Biden nominated Jill Hruby as under secretary for nuclear security and administrator of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Hruby is a mechanical engineer who joined Sandia National Laboratories as a member of the technical staff in 1983 and... Read More »
