FCW Insider: July 6

GSA cancels troubled ALLIANT 2 small business vehicle

GSA awarded spots on Alliant 2 SB to 81 companies in February 2018 but those award were followed by over a year of protests at the Government Accountability Office and at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims

CBP taps Anduril for virtual border sentinel system

Customs and Border Protection will expand autonomous border surveillance towers, but says the tech doesn't mean they're hitting pause on the border wall.

CISA's hit parade of malware aimed at federal agencies

Data compiled from CISA's Intrusion Detection System highlights the three types of malware attacks most commonly targeted at civilian federal agencies.

House panel advances NDAA with labor protections, spectrum rules

The House Armed Services Committee unanimously passed its version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act; tech provisions include spectrum sharing restrictions targeting Ligado 5G networks and new artificial intelligence initiatives.

GSA taps MetTel for its own EIS contract

The General Services Administration awards data and voice task orders under its $50 billion next generation telecommunications contract.

Quick Hits

*** Public sector employment ticked up slightly in the July 2 jobs report, with nationwide gains of 33,000 jobs between May and June. Between April and May, state and local government shed 571,000 jobs due to the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall government employment remains 1.5 million below that of February, before public health orders shutdown schools, government offices and other public facilities.

***The House Foreign Affairs Committee postponed a planned July 2 hearing with a top State Department official at his request. Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao had been scheduled to testify about President Trump's controversial decision to fire the agency's Inspector General, Steve Linick. In a statement, Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said he agreed to Bulatao's request that the hearing be postponed because the agency had only just received its IG report about the White House's emergency declaration to send Saudi Arabia $8 billion worth of firearms and needed time to review it. Linick had been investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's role in passing the emergency declaration at the time of his firing, which the President said was because he "had lost confidence" in Linick. Engel said that the hearing would be held later in July