Ellen Lord

""I have been impressed with the breadth and applicability of Clarifai's artificial intelligence technology "I'm looking forward to collaborating with Clarifai in helping government agencies enhance intelligence, scale operations efficiently and reduce risks"

"shows vignettes of what right looks like on certain types of acquisitions. For certain acquisition authorities, it suggests what contract types are most appropriate and then gives an example of when they're used correctly and incorrectly. This is based on data-driven analysis and will be featured on a new website and multiple new courses at DAU, including agile acquisition and services. Feedback will be built into the system to help stay updated."

"Another success is other transaction authorities or OTAs. Thanks to Congressional support for prototyping, we have seen OTA transactions triple from $1.4 billion in 2016 to $3.7 billion last year. Our OTA handbook and DAU support both play vital roles in this success. Just as encouraging is the 88% of OTA business is with companies who typically did not do business previously with the government. OTAs allow innovation to bypass bureaucracy, reducing timelines and lowering costs to provide the best capabilities to our men and women in uniform."

"Next, we are in the final stages of publishing the middle tier of acquisition policy. This pathway enables program managers to prototype or field mature technology in an operational environment within five years. Since our pilot started 18 months ago, we have gone from zero middle-tier programs in November 2018 to over 50 middle-tier programs today delivering military utility to warfighters years faster than the traditional acquisition system. Again, it's critical we focus on the speed of relevance."

"We have formally stood up our OSD intellectual property cadre, led by Director Mr. Richard Gray. He's coming out of the Office of General Counsel where he has been the department's sole I.P. lawyer, and he will report to Kevin Fahey. They will operationalize our newly-released DOD policy within the whole-of-government effort to address concerns on data rights targeted by cyber-security threats."

"The Cyber-Security Maturity Model Certification, or CMMC, program establishes security as the foundation to acquisition and combines the various cyber-security standards into one unified standard to secure the DOD supply chain. The department continues to move forward and I'm thankful for the multiple listening sessions we've had with industry and the Hill. We're using over 3,000 public comments to help tailor the final model which will have five levels of certification tailored to the criticality of the subsystem. These levels will measure technical capabilities and process maturity. The CMMC framework will be made fully available in January 2020 and by June 2020 industry will see CMMC requirements as part of requests for information."

"I remain committed to recruit, develop and retain a diverse A&S workforce. This year we enjoyed the first cohort of our industry exchange program run by our Human Capital Initiatives office. The program was very successful in providing industry and government participants a view of how the other side works and how we can work better together."

"We're planning now for the next iteration that begins in January, which will have increased attendance. Again, I have some information here that talks about that program."

"I'm also committed to providing our workforce new insights and best practices that we can take from the commercial sector. Earlier this year we held a successful TEDx event at DAU, and we're looking to do another one next year."

"Last month in Texas, the department and the Texas A&M University system co-sponsored Drone Venture Day, where over 39 U.S. manufactures of unmanned aerial vehicle systems and counter-UAS systems met with 12 trusted capital providers to explore mutually beneficial partnerships, business partnerships, focused on national security concerns."

"Drone Venture Day represented the inaugural event, in a series of trusted capital opportunities to build an ecosystem where trusted capital providers and domestic companies can limit adversarial foreign access to technology and strengthen domestic manufacturing in the defense industrial base."

"While this event focused on unmanned systems, others will focus on additional key technology areas. These fora will assist in promoting and protecting the industrial base, especially fragile sectors, as identified by the executive order 13806 report."

"Moving on to military housing. I want to be very clear that the department remains absolutely committed to the health and safety of our men and women in uniform, their families, houses and communities in which they live."

"On military housing, you've seen multiple hearings recently, to improve the trust and accountability of our leadership to provide safe -- safe, healthy homes for our military families renting privatized housing. Department and service leadership are finalizing a military housing resident bill of rights."

"We are planning for publication and implementation following the NDAA release. This bill of rights was based on resident surveys and inputs."

"On the PFAS Task Force, this remains a significant focus topic for the department. Every service secretary and OSD leadership remains strongly engaged. With Mr. McMahon leaving, Mr. Potochney is now running the Task Force. The next deliverable is an interim report to the Secretary on the activities of the Task Force."

"Moving on to bi-lats, international bi-lats; I am very fortunate to have represented the department around the world with so many of our key allies and partners. Through our International Cooperation Office, I have supported 68 bilateral engagements with international partners, engaging them on vital issues and promoting greater exportability around the world."

"Building on our most recent U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, or DTTI, meeting in India, where we signed a joint statement of intent on several projects. We're going to end the year with the 2+2 ministerial dialogue. The upcoming to 2+2 this month in Washington, D.C., is our near-term opportunity to finalize the standard operating procedures document that will identify and develop cooperative DTTI projects."

"I also continue to consistently meet with professional staff members and members outside of hearings to talk about programs, reforms and to answer their questions. I remain fully committed to consistent and timely engagement with Congress."

"In 2019, there was an enormous amount of focus on acquisition. In 2020, we will keep that momentum going, focusing on the CMMC rollout, 5G, protecting intellectual property, fielding counter-UAS systems and strengthening the national technology and industrial base."

"In 2020, sustainment will continue to play a vital role, from service aircraft, ground and sea systems sustainment, to military housing and supporting military PCSs."

"In closing, it's regrettable that we are again under a continuing resolution. C.R.s cause great damage to military readiness and disrupt our ability to modernize our strategic forces, including nuclear, for the future. I have seen the NDAA summary that was released last night, and I strongly encourage Congress to pass a defense appropriations and authorization bill now, so that we can move forward with the many important programs needed to ensure our readiness and deter our adversaries."