Government Contracting Blog

On September 4, 2018, Congress passed a bill titled “Securing the Homeland Security Supply Chain Act of 2018 (H.R. 6430)” following a bipartisan introduction led by Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Some have noted that the bill appears to come in response largely to a growing concern over commercially-successful companies who have been contracted by the U.S. government, particularly in the IT industry, that later demonstrated to pose significant supply chain risks that are a threat to national security. While these reports generally entail foreign-based cyber firms, the bill seeks to address risky vendors both internationally and domestically.

If your perception of drones involves a “toy” used by children or amateur filmmakers, you aren’t entirely wrong… but that barely scratches the surface. Drones and other classes of unmanned vehicles are making accessible various tasks for humans that have historically been very difficult, costly, or impossible.

Unfortunately, every year, particularly in the summer, it is common to see news headlines about wildfires destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of land. These are tragically accompanied by the loss of forests, towns, property, and human life. And if it seems like 2018 has been an especially bad year of forest fires, it has been.