The INSIDER daily digest -- Dec. 17, 2019

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has coverage of the FY-20 defense appropriations bill released this week along with a new Defense Science Board study as well as the Pentagon's latest draft plan of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.

We start off with coverage of the defense appropriations bill:

New spending deal largely ducks border controversy, preserves DOD's reprogramming authority

Congress is poised to vote on a $1.37 trillion appropriations deal this week for fiscal year 2020 that jettisons Democrats' earlier efforts to restrict the Pentagon's ability to reprogram funding, a measure intended to deter President Trump from again unilaterally transferring money meant for military construction and other defense priorities to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Appropriators move to fund LUSV prototypes with caveats on conceptual design contracts

Congressional appropriators are supporting the Navy's plans to buy two prototype unmanned surface vessels, but barred the service from initially pursuing conceptual designs that include a vertical launch system.

Document: FY-20 defense appropriations bill

The Defense Science Board has been tasked with looking into the resiliency of the GPS constellation:

Griffin creates DSB task force to study PNT resilience and performance upgrades

Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin has established a Defense Science Board task force to study the resiliency of the current GPS constellation and recommend architecture changes over the next 10 years that will improve the Defense Department's ability to "deny and confound" other space-based positioning, navigation and timing systems.

Document: DSB terms of reference memo for PNT study

Our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity have a deep dive into the Pentagon's latest draft plan of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification:

Latest draft of DOD cyber certification plan relies on pending NIST security controls

The Defense Department has issued a draft plan for its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program that addresses the highest levels of risks for contractors and relies on security controls developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that are still under review.

Document: DOD's CMMC draft 7.0

A new RAND Corp. report looks into the Defense Department's artificial intelligence efforts:

New report points to shortcomings in Pentagon's strategy, organization for AI

The Pentagon's artificial intelligence strategy lacks clear goals and metrics, while the year-old Joint AI Center doesn't have the authorities, resources and visibility to fulfill its mandate of being the "focal point" of Defense Department AI activity, according to a new RAND Corp. report.