A bipartisan group of three Republican and three Democratic senators has introduced a bill that aims to help NASA sustain and build on space investments to support space exploration.

The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2016 allocates $19.5 billion in funds to the space agency for fiscal year 2017, according to a press release published Friday.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bill Nelson (D-Florida), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) are backing the legislation.

The bill would require NASA to submit separate reports on the agency’s plans to commercialize low-Earth orbit operations and achieve human exploration of Mars using current technologies.

The legislation also directs NASA to address oversight of information technology and cybersecurity operations and investments as well as implement related recommendations of the inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.

NASA’s administrator would also establish an agency-wide security plan to support the requirements of NASA systems; identify roles and responsibilities; and address coordination among centers, facilities and mission directorates.

The bipartisan legislation seeks to add the Journey to Mars as one of NASA’s goals and objectives and directs the agency to manage human spaceflight programs.

The act supports the use of the International Space Station until at least 2024 as well as partnerships with the private sector to help NASA deliver cargo and experiments.

The bill also reaffirms support for the development of deep space exploration programs particularly the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and the Orion crew vehicle for beyond low-Earth orbit missions.

The legislation authorizes NASA to aid astronaut medical monitoring, diagnosis and treatment programs such as scientific and medical tests for psychological and medical conditions related to human space flight.

The transition authorization act also gives recognition to NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s 340-day space mission aboard the ISS to gain insight on how the human body adjusts to conditions of long-duration space flight.

Elizabeth Field, a senior adviser in the office of the undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights at the State Department, has been nominated by President Barack Obama as inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management.

The White House named Field among other nominees for key administration positions in a release issued Friday.

Field has previously worked as assistant inspector general for audits and inspections at the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and as an inspector at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence‘s management reviews division.

She has also served at the Government Accountability Office, where she was a senior analyst in the international affairs and trade team and author of various GAO reports on foreign affairs, international human rights, global health policy and national security.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended the Defense Department to communicate with the Labor Department and monitor Federal Employees’ Compensation Act claims-management actions timelines to identify areas in which delays may occur.

A GAO published Thursday says 47,340 DoD civilian employees covered 17 percent of FECA’s claimants in 2015 with 56 percent of the total-disability beneficiaries at or above the full Social Security Retirement age.

GAO noted 35 percent of the total beneficiaries received only medical benefits and 31 percent got cash payments for injury or death, including the 20 percent that were given partial- or total-disability benefits.

Auditors added that interviewed DoD FECA officials such as program managers, injury compensation specialists and liaisons blamed perceived delays with receipts of decisions from DOL despite having access to the latter’s data for FECA management.

DOL said that some determinations on the return of employees to work could take months to process because of the amount of information and communication required between employing agencies, injured employees and other parties.

Monitoring timelines could help DoD identify the extent of and the nature of problems that affect delays on return-to-work efforts as well as work to update the system and gather information to communicate such issues with DOL, GAO added.