Debra Daniels, vice procurement services executive at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said in an interview that the agency has obligated $7.6 billion to support small businesses in the defense industrial base this fiscal year.
That amount represents a significant increase from FY 2019 and comes as part of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) efforts to address pressing information technology and cyber needs in addition to pandemic-related matters, Daniels told C4ISRnet in an interview published Tuesday.
“DISA never shut down during the pandemic,” said Daniels, who also serves as deputy director of the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO).
“We just moved from a federal workspace to our own home workspaces and kept going. And what I can say about the contracting force is they never lost momentum, they never lost focus on the priorities at all in doing that.”
Speaking about the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, Daniels noted that DISA’ s Procurement Services Directorate is “definitely working to understand” rules under the new contractor vetting initiative.
She noted that DISA plans to brief industry on its future program requirements during the agency's upcoming virtual Forecast to Industry event.