PEO Pulse - April 10, 2020

►► PEO PULSE - April 10, 2020

The "PEO Pulse" is a weekly digest of relevant news, recent PEO EIS events and updates to keep our workforce informed.

►► UPCOMING EVENTS

• April 16 - Lunch & Learn (virtual)
• May 13 - PEO EIS Newcomers Brief
• May 27 - PEO Change of Charter Ceremony (TBD)

►► CONGRESSIONAL

This month, PEO EIS continues to provide annual budget overview updates to Appropriator professional staff members. These briefings are being conducted virtually in light of the currently pandemic, ensuring the safety of all participants.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is also tearing up paper hearings in response to the challenges of COVID-19: "DOD has rightfully focused on COVID-19 response, which means the Department has struggled to respond in a timely manner to the paper hearing questions for the Department of the Army posture hearing," Armed Services spokesperson Marta Hernandez said in a statement. "Recognizing the additional burden on the Department of Defense at this critical time, Chairman Jim Inhofe and Ranking Member Jack Reed have agreed to postpone future paper hearings until the Committee has more clarity on the COVID-19 situation."

Meanwhile, the May markup of the Senate version of the defense policy bill is looking more likely to be delayed.

►► AROUND EIS

MC4 SUPPORTS ARMY UNITS WORLDWIDE IN COMBATING COVID-19
Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) is responding to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at multiple locations across the country and overseas with equipment and direct technical and training support to dozens of Army units deployed to aid COVID-19 efforts.

ARMY NATIONAL GUARD ROLLS OUT NEW PAY AND PERSONNEL ACTION TRACKING SYSTEM
The Army National Guard has completed the launch of a personnel system designed to help soldiers track their salary, benefits and other personnel actions through their mobile phones. More than 330K members of the Army National Guard can now use the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, which can store human resources data and talent management information in digital format. The IPPS-A program is expected to support over 1M warfighters in the Guard, Reserve and active force upon its completion in December 2021.

THE ENTIRE ARMY NATIONAL GUARD IS NOW ON A SINGLE DIGITAL PAY SYSTEM FOR THE FIRST TIME
All 332,000 soldiers in the Army National Guard for the first time are using one personnel system - a modern digital pay and human resources platform that last week replaced 54 separate paper-based programs, service officials said Thursday.

WINNING THE CHOICE: PROBLEM-FOCUSED MARKETING FOR MILITARY PARTNERSHIP
Since 2016, PEO EIS’ Allied Information Technology (AIT) has been delivering non-standard Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber and Intelligence (C5I) capabilities that are tailored according to host nation requirements, not limited to just the products and services also-ordered by a $718 billion U.S. joint force.

►► ARMY

ARMY PLANNING WAYS TO ASSIST DEFENSE CONTRACTORS DURING PANDEMIC
(Inside Defense, Apr. 3, Ashley Tressel)

ARMY TRYING TO MITIGATE DISRUPTIONS FOR TOP MODERNIZATION PROGRAMS
(National Defense Magazine, Apr. 3, Jon Harper)

THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19: A TOTAL ARMY APPROACH
(AUSA.org, Apr. 2, Secretary Ryan McCarthy, GEN James McConville and SMA Michael Grinston)

ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS LEADING EXPANSION EFFORTS IN NYC HOSPITAL CAPACITY
LTG Todd Semonite, Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the Army Corps of Engineers, joins Andrea Mitchell to explain how his team is working to mitigate hospital bed shortages in New York and other hot spots across the country.

INSIDE THE FIELD HOSPITAL OPERATION AT NYC'S JAVITS CENTER
COL Kimberlee Aiello, commander of the 44th Medical Brigade, joins 'Fox & Friends.'

SOLDIERS COULD’VE ALREADY HAD COVID-19 WITHOUT KNOWING, AND THE CHIEF WANTS TO FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE
(Army Times, Apr. 7, Kyle Rempfer) The game-changer for the Army won’t be devices to test whether a soldier currently has COVID-19, but instead ones that say if the soldier has ever contracted the novel coronavirus, even if they never showed symptoms.

NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT INCREASES BY 5,000 TROOPS IN ONE DAY TO HELP STOP CORONAVIRUS SPREAD
(Stars and Stripes, Apr. 7, Rose L. Thayer) An additional 5,000 National Guard members have been activated since Monday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as governors rely on federal funding for troops to help with everything from testing to building hospital-bed facilities.

NATIONAL GUARD IN SUPPORT ROLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY, FROM STANDING UP FIELD HOSPITALS TO RUNNING TESTING SITES
(Washington Examiner, Apr. 7, Abraham Mahshie) When the Army Corps of Engineers comes to town with plans for converting convention centers into hospitals, across the nation, it has been local National Guard units that do the heavy lifting.

►► FEDERAL

PENTAGON DELAYS BUDGET DEADLINE TO HELP STAFF WORK FROM HOME
Service officials had complained that a June 1 deadline was preventing them from implementing coronavirus-related social-distancing guidelines. (Defense One, Marcus Weisgerber and Katie Bo Williams)

US MILITARY CAN DO MORE TO HELP WITH CORONAVIRUS, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES CHIEF SAYS
(Defense One, Marcus Weisgerber) The House Armed Services Committee's top Democrat says the Pentagon needs to "get creative" in its response.

THE PENTAGON IS USING ZOOM. IS IT SAFE?
(Defense One, Patrick Tucker) Experts say the ubiquitous videoconferencing tools bear some risk of accidentally exposing mundane details, and even inviting a new wave of deep fakes. But the risks can be managed.

DEFENSE SECRETARY DIRECTS TROOPS TO WEAR FACE COVERINGS WHEN SOCIAL DISTANCING ISN'T POSSIBLE
(Task & Purpose, Apr. 5, Haley Britzky)

MILITARY'S ONCE-POWERFUL INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROGRAM WILL SEE A BOOST
(The Gazette (CO), Apr. 3, Tom Roeder)

NEW SATELLITES WILL BE A BIG STEP IN THE PENTAGON’S PLAN TO LINK EVERYTHING
(Defense One, Apr. 3, Patrick Tucker)

DEPLOYMENT OF DOD ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD MODERNIZATION PAUSED
(FEDSCOOP, Apr. 3, Jackson Barnett)

PENTAGON LAUNCHES CORONAVIRUS MYTHBUSTER SITE
(Next Gov, Apr. 6, Brandi Vincent)

NEWEST DOD INDUSTRY GUIDANCE CLARIFIES REPAYMENTS, MAKES PROTOTYPING EASIER
(Defense News, Aaron Mehta)

PENTAGON RELEASES LAST OF FOUR SOLICITATIONS TO TEST 5G TECHNOLOGIES
(Federal News Network, Jared Serbu)

►► WORKFORCE

YOU ASKED AND WE ANSWERED: THE PEO EIS TOWN HALL Q&A IS POSTED TO SHAREPOINT

MEET MAJ. LESLIE CLEMENTE
Maj. Leslie Clemente, assistant program manager of Project Director, Enterprise Services (ES), is today’s #PEOEISTeammateTuesday. A former Signal Corps officer and tenacious go-getter, she is in the process of identifying best-of-breed robotic-process-automation (RPA) tools that can help the Army save time and money. When not working, she enjoys CrossFit, hiking, rock climbing and mentoring young people in her local church. Clemente answered nine questions about her career and life.

AWARDS:
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2020 EUGENE G. FUBINI AWARD NOMINATIONS
S: 10 APR 2020.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE WORKFORCE RECRUITMENT PROGRAM AWARDS
S: 30 APR 2020. ***FOR ALL AWARDS QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT: tobias.l.smith.civ@mail.mil

CHIEFS FITNESS CHALLENGE
This week, Chief of Staff Matt Russell and Senior Technical Advisor CW4 Tim Reyna launched a Steps and Push-ups challenge to the workforce. Input your stats each Friday; winners in each category will be announced each Monday. You can track your fitness updates and see how your teammates are doing by clicking the above link.

This message contains curated content from external sources, and does not indicate PEO EIS endorsement of the views or ideas expressed therein.