Tag Archives: Commerce Department

President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to work with the government's COVID-19 response coordinator in efforts to collect, publish and share pandemic-related data and address disinformation or misinformation campaigns regarding the public health crisis.

Isabel Guzman, director of California's Office of the Small Business Advocate, has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as head of the Small Business Administration. The Biden transition team also announced the nominations of Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh to lead the departments of Commerce and Labor, respectively.

Naval Sea Systems Command has selected Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors for a potential $178M contract to design and build two ships for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's oceanographic research.

Heidi Grant, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said foreign military sales in fiscal year 2020 reached $50.78B, including $3.3B in arms sales funded through the Title 22 Foreign Military Financing Program, Defense News reported Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded a total of $23M in two-year contracts to GeoOptics and Spire Global for radio occultation data that the agency plans to use for operational weather forecasts. NOAA awarded the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts on Nov. 20 under the Commercial Weather Data Pilot program for work that will run through 2022, the Department of Commerce's space commerce office said.

House lawmakers have voted unanimously to clear a bipartisan bill that would allot $750M to support 5G technology deployment initiatives through a federal grant program under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, The Hill reported Tuesday.

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission has released a white paper that presents a five-pillar strategy to establish trusted supply chains for critical information and communications technologies. The strategy calls for the U.S. to identify key technologies and equipment through public-private partnerships and government assessments; ensure minimum viable manufacturing capacity; protect supply chain from compromise through information sharing, product testing and better intelligence; stimulate a domestic market via targeted infrastructure investment; and ensure global competitiveness.

Golden Key Group has won a potential $110M contract to help the Department of Commerce manage personnel action request, payroll and employee benefit processing functions, according to a SAM award notice posted Thursday.

Four lawmakers have proposed a bicameral bill to strengthen U.S. scientific and technological edge through increased investments in the development and commercialization of emerging technologies. The bipartisan Endless Frontier Act would change the name of the National Science Foundation to National Science and Technology Foundation and create a technology directorate within NSTF to advance research in 10 tech focus areas, including artificial intelligence and machine learning; high-performance computing; cybersecurity and data storage; and robotics, automation and advanced manufacturing.

The Trump administration is in discussions with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other semiconductor firms to establish new chip factories in the U.S. to strengthen the domestic production of chips as concerns rise over the vulnerability of Asian factories as highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.