Month: March 2023

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Construction Starts for Expansion and Modernization at Anzalduas Land Port of Entry

Source: United States General Services Administration

March 9, 2023

Project includes New Commercial Facilities

McAllen, Texas – General Services Administration (GSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Anzalduas International Bridge Board (AIBB) announced the start of construction for new commercial facilities at the Anzalduas Land Port of Entry (LPOE). The project, which includes expansion and modernization at the port, was made possible through the Donations Acceptance Program. Once completed, the new facilities will support CBP operations and strengthen international trade and commerce between the U.S. and Mexico.

The Donations Acceptance Program allows GSA and CBP to partner with public and private entities to accept donations in support of CBP operations at our nation’s borders. The program provides a win-win scenario for customer agencies like CBP, local communities and the American taxpayer.

At the Anzalduas LPOE, the AIBB will donate approximately $88M towards the following improvements:

  • Six (6) Commercial Inspection Lanes
  • New Cargo Processing, Administration Office and Command Center
  • Overhead Canopies
  • Inspection Booths
  • Commercial Inspection Bays (Commercial Inspection Area)
  • Roadway Pavement Upgrades
  • Parking Lot Expansion
  • Inspection and Security Technology through a monetary donation

“GSA is proud to announce the start of construction for this major modernization of the Anzalduas Land Port of Entry,” said GSA Regional Administrator Jason L. Shelton. “Our Donations Program, which is used frequently along our southern border, allows us to creatively deliver state-of-the-art facilities to CPB in support of their mission to safeguard our borders and enhance our nation’s economic prosperity through trade.”

“With the continued increase of imports from Mexico, having these additional spaces and improvements will have a significant positive impact on our ability to expedite the processing time and get shipments on their way into U.S. commerce,” said Port Director Carlos Rodriguez, Port of Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas.

“The addition of the lanes and infrastructure improvements in this project will help accommodate the rapidly growing economy in the City of McAllen; it will also reinvigorate the economic vitality of the City of McAllen by creating new international trade opportunities and incentivize new local jobs,” said Pete Flores, Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Field Operations. “Many infrastructures and technological improvements at Ports of Entry are made possible by the Donations Acceptance Program.”

“The City of McAllen and the Anzalduas International Bridge Board remains committed to working with our federal partners to identify and implement innovative methods to expedite traffic and trade at our international port of entry, making border crossings and inspections function more effectively while helping our trade partners process and cross their goods more efficiently,” said City of McAllen Mayor and Anzalduas International Bridge Board Chairman Javier Villalobos, J.D.

Anzalduas International Bridge is co-owned by the cities of McAllen, Mission, Hidalgo and Granjeno. Construction will take approximately two years to complete.

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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGS

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Statement by GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan on the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget

Source: United States General Services Administration

March 9, 2023

Budget makes smart investments in federal infrastructure and technology and calls for GSA to be able to reinvest funds it collects

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The Budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes.

“The President’s Budget reflects smart investments that will help GSA make cost-saving upgrades to federal buildings, bolster the nation’s cybersecurity, and improve how the government delivers digital services to millions of Americans,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “In addition, for the first time ever, the President’s Budget includes a provision that will guarantee full access to the Federal Buildings Fund while preserving Congress’s discretion to decide on and authorize investments – this is a game-changing provision that will enable GSA to modernize and consolidate the federal footprint, saving taxpayers millions and creating good-paying jobs in local communities.”

The Budget makes critical, targeted investments for the American people that will promote greater prosperity and economic growth for decades to come. At GSA, the Budget will:

  • Modernize federal buildings and reduce long term costs. The President’s budget includes $11.1 billion in budget authority for the Federal Buildings Fund to reduce the growing backlog of critical repairs and renovations, enhance sustainability, reduce long term costs, and create jobs in local communities. In addition to making long-overdue upgrades and repairs, the Budget will allow the Public Buildings Service to continue reducing the federal government’s reliance on costly leased space. The President’s budget request also calls on Congress to allow GSA to have full access to the annual revenues deposited in the FBF. With about half of GSA’s active leases set to expire in the next five years, full FBF access will help GSA address its backlog in deferred maintenance and consolidate leases into federally-owned facilities, resulting in savings through reduced lease payments.
  • Improve digital services and strengthen cybersecurity. The budget includes $200 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), allowing the TMF to continue bolstering cybersecurity through supporting zero trust architecture, to replace outdated standalone legacy systems with shared services, and to improve customer experience for Americans in need of government services. The budget also includes $90 million for the Federal Citizen Services Fund administered by the Technology Transformation Services to support modernization and adoption of digital services, increasing the federal government’s ability to deliver accessible, equitable, and efficient solutions for the American people.

Building on the President’s strong record of fiscal responsibility, the Budget more than fully pays for its investments—reducing deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade by asking the wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share.

For more information on the President’s FY 2024 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/. The GSA Budget request will be posted in the coming days at www.gsa.gov/cj.

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About GSA:

GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA

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Department of Justice Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Request

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Note: Read the Department of Justice FY2024 Budget Fact Sheets here.

Today, the President submitted to Congress his Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), which requests a total of $39.7 billion in discretionary resources, an increase of $2.3 billion, or 6 percent, over the Fiscal Year 2023 enacted level, and $9.7 billion in mandatory funding for the Department of Justice.

“The Justice Department’s mission is to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This increase in resources to our law enforcement agencies, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and litigating and grantmaking components will enable us to build on our efforts to fulfill that mission. The Department will put these resources to work in communities across the country — including to combat violent crime and gun violence, address the deadly fentanyl crisis, counter threats to our national security, investigate and prosecute hate crimes, safeguard voting rights, address environmental harm, advance economic fairness, and uphold the rule of law.”

Key investments to keep our country safe include:

  • More than $21 billion in investments to expand the capacity of the Department’s law enforcement and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to keep our country safe from a wide range of complex and evolving threats, including $11.3 billion for the FBI and $2.9 billion for the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to carry out their complex mission sets, including keeping our country safe from violent crime, cybercrime, hate crimes, terrorism, espionage, and the proliferation and potential use of weapons of mass destruction.  The budget also includes:
    • $11.4 billion to tackle violent crime.
    • $2.7 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to continue the fight against dangerous drug trafficking gangs and cartels and to prevent the flow of deadly drugs into our communities. This includes $19 million in enhancements for the DEA and $696 million in grants for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to continue the fight against dangerous drug trafficking organizations, and doubles grant programs, including two new programs aimed at protecting America’s youth and identifying the next generation of psychoactive substances.
    • $1.9 billion for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) to assist local law enforcement in apprehending violent fugitives from our neighborhoods and to protect our nation’s judges and courts.
    • $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)  for reducing gun violence and violent crime.
    • Almost $7.7 billion for national security programs, including $32.7 million in program increases to expand the Department’s ability to counter terrorism and keep pace with rising national security threats, while protecting civil rights and civil liberties, and $179.7 million in program enhancements to support the Department’s efforts to respond to cybersecurity and cyber threats.
      • $939.3 million to protect the most vulnerable by enforcing human smuggling laws, combating child exploitation, combatting gender-based discrimination and harassment, and protecting victims of violence and abuse.
      • $300 million in mandatory funding over three years for COVID fraud enforcement.                                          
  • $1.5 billion in critical investments to support the Justice Department’s mission of protecting civil rights, including:
    • $261 million to preserve, protect, and defend civil rights. The request prioritizes advancing racial justice, promoting equity for underserved communities, and enforcing civil rights across the Nation.  This funding will support police reform, provide for the prosecution of hate crimes across the nation, defend voting rights, and other important civil rights activities.
    • $89 million to support the department’s Body Worn Camera Initiative.
    • $300 million for the Office of Justice Programs Accelerating Justice System Reform initiative to provide states the tools and incentives to address existing drivers of correctional rates, racial disparities, and adverse outcomes for civilians.
    • $446 million for Office on Violence Against Women programs to combat domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and support survivors.
  • $84 million in critical investments to uphold the Rule of Law, including:
    • $8 million to enforce federal law related to voting.  This funding would expand the Civil Rights Division’s ability to address language access obligations, rebuild enforcement capacity, and address violations of the National Voter Registration Act. The division will also expand its ability to review and resolve potential violations of the National Voting Rights Act.
    • $21 million for Judicial Security and Protective Operations for the United States Marshals Service to enhance protective operations by funding two full-time protective services details to support high-threat mitigation throughout the Judicial and Executive Branches.
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Defense News: USS Arleigh Burke Begins Exercise Joint Warrior 23-1

Source: United States Navy

Under the command and control of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 65, the FDNF-E ship will join allies in the two-week long multilateral training exercise.

“During Joint Warrior we validate and develop new capabilities that allow NATO allies to fight more effectively alongside one another,” said CDR Peter Flynn, commanding officer of USS Arleigh Burke. “America’s Lead Destroyer, USS Arleigh Burke, brings a highly capable ship and an enthusiastic crew – when combined with our NATO allies, we are the most capable fighting force on Earth.”

Led by the U.K. Royal Navy, exercise Joint Warrior 23-1 is a biannual, multilateral, multi-warfare exercise that incorporates surface, subsurface, airborne, and land scenarios to provide joint training in a multi-threat environment for NATO units. Participating nations include Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S. The exercise will predominantly take place off the Northern coast of Norway and throughout the Northern European Seas with more than 30 ships, 4 submarines and multiple aircraft ranging from maritime patrol to troop transporters.

The robust security relationship between the U.S. and U.K., with combined exercises, bilateral exchanges, shared investments, and combined planning make both forces stronger and ready for future security challenges.

The NATO alliance is vital to European security and also to U.S. national interests. NATO allies and partners take every opportunity to train together to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures to increase our interoperability.

For over 80 years, NAVEUR-NAVAF has forged strategic relationships with our allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.

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Defense News: U.S. DOT and NIWC-PAC Host SeaVision Training for Exercise Cutlass Express 2023 Participants

Source: United States Navy

Two trainers, Mario C. Caputo, a Situational Awareness and Logistics Division engineer for the DOT, and Alvin Yu, a SeaVision technician and trainer for NIWC-PAC, hosted a two-day crash course on SeaVision to CE23 participants, bringing partners up-to-speed on the latest updates and new tools available, as well as how to enable the web-based program and utilize different areas of the software to sort and sift through various types of analytical data. Additionally, the trainers discussed and illustrated how SeaVision would be used as a visual, Common Operating Picture (COP) for exercise Cutlass Express 2023. Utilizing SeaVision, exercise members will track participating ships during next-week’s execution phase of the exercise and communicate their analysis to other participants through SeaVision’s communication tools.

“So far, we have a good audience for our training,” said Yu. “We specifically requested those who are already operating at their national Maritime Operations Center and have some familiarity with the program from daily use. We’ve seen the team this year fully able to use the tools, understand the data, and have discussions about the maritime challenges they’ve encountered in the region. Then, we try to use SeaVision to tackle some of those challenges.”

SeaVision is the U.S. Navy’s unclassified maritime domain awareness tool. Developed by the DOT, and later co-developed by NIWC-PAC, the program uses both commercial and national AIS data to develop broad-spectrum and situational awareness of the maritime domain. In practice, partner nations use the program to receive a comprehensive picture of what is happening in their exclusive economic zone and can further use the program to assess maritime information gathered in the waters of other nations that opt-into and utilize the SeaVision program.

To gather this information, SeaVision utilizes a couple different avenues of information collection. The primary inputs are from nations participating in the SeaVision program. Additional inputs come from commercial, governmental, and military organizations, which help build a better picture. Some countries, such as Mauritius and Kenya, utilize coastal AIS sensors to build a picture of vessels currently in their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. For example, when both nations join the SeaVision program, Mauritius receives all of Kenya’s national AIS data, and vice-versa. What this means, in practice, is that Kenya can track a suspect vessel as it departs Port Louis, Mauritius, and, if the nations along its route are SeaVision partners, all the way up until it moors in Mombasa, Kenya.

This is the Common Operating Picture (COP) of SeaVision – a visual map that breaks down a diverse range of analytical data. For example, a SeaVision operator can observe a ship’s movement, the ship’s track, up-to-date positions of the ship’s transmission on AIS, if and when it changes its name, and if any of the public data has either changed or does not match previously submitted data. Additionally, SeaVision has non-AIS data sources to assist partners in tracking non-AIS emitting vessels.

“Our goal is to show our partners what kind of level-of-capability they can achieve, with SeaVision as a baseline,” Yu said. “We’re achieving great interoperability with our African partners. We use SeaVision during Cutlass Express 2023 to demonstrate new capabilities, and how those capabilities can tackle important maritime challenges we face in the region – specifically illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, smuggling and trafficking of goods. Additionally, we dive into the analytical data so that when we look at the COP, we can distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior, potentially for further investigation.”

U.S. Naval Forces Africa funds SeaVision access for African partner nations to use throughout the year, as part of a capacity-building initiative. Nahashon Kathenya, Kenya Bureau of Standards principle inspection officer, emphasized SeaVision’s ability to provide a COP while expanding maritime awareness for partners around the world.

“This is a very good concept – to learn about the tools we can use and how it can be practical day-to-day in our working environment,” Kethenya said. “Especially in the Kenyan Joint Operations Center, with different government agencies with interest in our territorial waters. Water is one of our most important resources and shared by many countries. For our country to be safe, we need to share that maritime information – a vessel could be in our country, and then just move to another country. If we share that information with an adjacent country, we’re able to intercept, and recover its history. We can even utilize that information for prosecution. The knowledge we received is incredibly important. It’s a brilliant thing.”

Sharing new techniques and knowledge amongst partner nations and exercise participants during CE23 enhances Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and information sharing between Maritime Operation Centers (MOCs) in East Africa, leading to a safer and more secure maritime environment.

The 14 nations scheduled to participate in CE23 include Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, France, Georgia, Greece, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The U.S. shares a common interest with African partner nations in ensuring security, safety, and freedom of navigation on the waters surrounding the continent, because these waters are critical for Africa’s prosperity and access to global markets.

AFRICOM, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, is one of 11 U.S. Department of Defense combatant commands, each with a geographic or functional mission that provides command and control of military forces in peace and war. AFRICOM employs the broad-reaching diplomacy, development, and defense approach to foster interagency efforts and help negate the drivers of conflict and extremism in Africa.

For more than 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa has forged strategic relationships with allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.