government-officials

"We live in a multi-hazard environment not just from natural hazards but from industrial as well as natural, technological hazards as well. The compounding of these hazards has led to the development of systemic risk and threats to our entire economic and social systems."

"Vulgar of manner, overfed, Overdressed and underbred; Heartless, Godless, hell's delight, Rude by day and lewd by night; Bedwarfed the man, o'ergrown the brute, Ruled by Jew and prostitute; Purple-robed and pauper-clad, Raving, rotting, money-mad; A squirming herd in Mammon's mesh, A wilderness of human flesh; Crazed with avarice, lust, and rum, New York, thy name's Delirium."

"I graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1974, with a Bachelor of Science, Honors degree, in Electrical Engineering; emerging as the first woman to attain an engineering degree in Uganda. My employment was mainly within Government, where I had the opportunity to train, acquire skills and gain experience in management and leadership. I am Registered Engineer and member of the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) and served as a member of UIPE Executive Council for two years."

"Today, our transmission networks are constrained. Our system is struggling in many areas. We continue to experience energy losses, although they are on a decline compared to 20 years ago, so we’ll be looking to invest more in our transmission network. Additionally, the new Electricity (Amendment) Act of 2022 removed the single-buyer mode, where our national utility company, Uganda Electricity Transmission, was the sole buyer for all power generated in the country."

"We made a promise to the American people. President Trump has made a promise to the American people. We're going to make this country safe again."

"There's $50,000 out there somewhere, there's audio of Homan accepting the bag with the $50,000. But, Karoline Leavitt ... said on the record, "Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 you were referring to." ... Where is the money now? Is it in his bank account? Did he give it back? What happened? Did he not take it? Like, there are just so many questions here. I am not suggesting that Homan did something illegal ... A guy who has a central role in the critial issue of Donald Trump's 2nd term, immigration and the border, we believe, according to the audio by the FBI, took $50,000 from an undercover FBI agent, thinking they were a government contractor seeking to get in his good graces to secure government contracts on immigration, when ... and if Donald Trump won. Where's the money?"

"20 years ago, our electrification rate was at 10%. Electricity is a key driver for creating a positive business environment. Many strides have been taken, and thanks to the efforts of His Excellency the President and the rest of the government, just in the last 20 years we’ve jumped from 10% to 57%."

"Our petroleum industry is being developed in a sustainable manner when it comes to environmental and social governance, and this includes the issues around land acquisition. We go through comprehensive resettlement action planning, where all compensations are approved by the chief government valuer, and then we proceed to pay the project affected persons."

"Our mandate is to ensure sustainable exploitation of our petroleum resources, among other extractives that we have as a country, as well as to ensure we are improving on our access to clean energy while ensuring that it is affordable and reliable."

"It's not OK to violate the laws of this country. We have millions of people standing in line, taking the test, doing their background investigation, paying the fees that want to come in the right way."

"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."

"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."

""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"

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 have spent my career working very hard, I have spent the right time doing the right kinds of jobs and obviously have been in the right kind of assignments to put me in the position to be here. The fact that I’m female is nice; the fact that I’m black is nice, but I don’t think those were the reasons I was selected."

"Men think in terms of only men knowing how engines work, but once the engineers began to explain things to me, I could just see the amazement in their eyes when I was able to ask [intelligent] questions."

"Science organizations in the 1960s and '70s -- and the timeframe is a key part -- did not have a big female population, I can't tell you how many meetings I was the only female there. That's just how it was. But that was getting better by the time I left."

"Communication is paramount to your success, You need to articulate how your great idea is impactful, whether to your community, society or economy. Having strong technical skills is critical, but you must also be able to work with others and communicate effectively to bring those ideas to life."

"Read, read, read, and learn, learn, learn."

"My greatest challenge is climbing the ladder of success, and pulling others behind me," she said. "If you see a turtle sitting on top of a fence post, you know he had help getting there"

"This downward spiral is especially severe for girls of color, girls with disabilities, girls living in poverty and girls who are learning English as a new language, The United States cannot afford to lose more than half of its talent and the fresh perspective that women and minorities can bring to these critical fields. We must work together across the boundaries of skin color and gender."

"By helping to protect U.S. agriculture, increase agricultural productivity, and increase resilience of U.S. farms these innovations contribute to farm productivity and profitability and expand the ability for U.S. leadership to address the global challenge to “feed everyone.”"

"The ability of the American farm sector to feed far more people today than 6 decades ago, while using less farmland and fewer workers and reducing the environmental impact of food production, is testimony to the impact of agricultural research and innovation."

"I am excited about the many recent technological advancements and the availability of breakthrough technologies that support and lead innovation in America’s high-tech food and agricultural economy."

"USDA is uniquely positioned to defend agriculture from existing and emerging pests and diseases, another major requirement for food security. USDA science agencies maintain an in-house infrastructure of expertise, facilities, and long-term high-risk research and provide resources for agricultural research outside at the land-grant and other universities as well. A great example of one of those invaluable resources is the germplasm collections at ARS."

"I was introduced to agriculture while pursuing a college degree in pulp and paper science and technology at North Carolina State University. While a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, I had the opportunity to join the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their efforts to advance agriculture through research, education, and extension."

"We really want to be able to grow our food, feed, fiber and fuel in a way that's sustainable and resilient"

"At USDA, we are committed to delivering solutions to America’s high- priority agricultural challenges. These challenges include producing enough safe and nutritious food to feed a growing population while being good stewards of our natural resources."

"I'm very excited about that opportunity to really drive the vision for the future . . . on what we should be focused on for three years."

"These are the backbone of enhancing productivity, minimizing risks, and combatting emerging threats to production."

"I am a lifelong learner; one best practice I’ve instituted that works for us is a custom of debriefing and lessons learned."

"“Most people outside of the state government bubble, like the suburban soccer mom, didn’t know about the One Virginia mission or online tool kit, which has now been completely erased from the internet. ONE Virginia was about bringing us together, making Virginia work better for all of us…and was not about division.”"