Mar 14, 2021 News
This update will focus on our reactions to and impacts of the pandemic.
Rob Mazzuca, our Economic Development Group Chair is leading the SMART Emergency Management Rapid Reaction & Recovery team to support our federal agencies in acquisition of their PPE requirements, led by the VA. For further information and/or participation in the program, contact the team’s Business Development Director, Brian Hakan at [email protected]
Debbie Burrell, SMART BoD and Health Care Group Chair, is leading our efforts to address the opioid crisis. She primarily focuses on needed, new State legislation and coordination with any related Federal efforts. She has also continued her role as the Chair of our annual convention, SMART PROC GOVCON, which was conducted this past January as a successful virtual event. Contact Debbie at [email protected]
Gordy Bryant is the Founder & Program Manager of the “Drive Across America” program. Driving from Wildwood NJ to San Diego CA in the spring of 2022, this program, has two major purposes that focus on gathering national, grass-roots data. First to support and identify the STEM Education/Workforce Development needs of the related and highly technical automotive, motorsports and aviation communities; second, conduct a charity benefit for Veterans Unfunded Health Care projects at each major stop. The data gathered will be presented on Capitol Hill to Congress, the Federal Executive Branch and Major Business as source data for public and private actions. There are multiple secondary topics that will add to the scope of the program; Transportation Infrastructure, Electric Vehicles, Energy/Environment, etc.
During 2021, as local regulations allow, we will conduct short Demo Drives of the full route to build support for the full Drive in 2022. Contact Gordy at [email protected]
The Hon Amato Berardi, Member of Italian Parliament (2008-2013) and SMART International Group Dep Chair, Italy, is chairing the 1st Annual Mid-Atlantic Italian Medical Awards Dinner in Philadelphia. The event is a fund raiser for the National Kidney Foundation. We have slipped the date to Sept/Oct TBD, 2021. Please contact [email protected] to get on our distribution list further info and updates.
Mar 2021 News
SMART has upgraded our domain name from smartstates.com to smart-states.org to solve various issues. The site structure remains the same and we are upgrading as time allows. Please contact Executive Director Robert Carullo as needed at 609-304-2904.
Feb 2021 News
Feb 11 Update: SMART BoD, Strategic Planning Committee Update
– Please contact Robert Carullo for further details at [email protected] and stay tuned for further updates on progress.
The BoD Strategic Planning Committee is working with our contacts in the SMART Congressional Delegation (Caucus is pending renewal, required every 2 years), the Biden Administration (White House and 56 Fed Agencies), the State Gov’ts and the SMART Major Business Committee (Advisory Committee to all elements) to address our 2021 priorities, both administratively and our tech enterprise mission. We are participating in multiple, working meetings/conference calls.
Administratively, there are several new, bi-partisan entities in Washington that have recently stood up with key members of our Congressional Delegation and our key business leaders (led by the SMART BoD Chair, Phil Jaurigue). We are working with them on goals and objectives that are mutual and look forward to a productive, collaborative 2021. We are also evaluating the Administration’s Executive Orders that apply to the SMART mission.
These administrative efforts will serve to simply add support to our ongoing priority programs. These are led by the Emergency Management Rapid Reaction & Recovery (EM R3) Program. PPE supply for the 56 Federal Agencies is EM R3’s top objective. Our second priority is the Drive Across America Program, supporting STEM Education/Workforce Development and a fiscal benefactor of Veterans Unfunded Health Care local projects at each major stop, selected by local Vets. Multiple other, ongoing and new efforts are being executed by our 15 Focus Groups and 4 Special Committees. Our next significant event is the Apr 29 Mid-Atlantic Italian American Medical Awards Dinner, chaired by the Hon. Amato Berardi, past Member of the Italian Parliament, North American Seat.
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Feb 09 Update: Emergency Management Rapid Reaction & Recovery (EM R3) Program
Given the continuing misrepresentation of SMART and the fraudulent use of our logo and copied and pasted signatures, SMART has taken steps to completely revise our efforts to facilitate supply of PPE to our Federal, State and Local Government Agencies. We are in the process of implementing block chain technologies that we feel will solve these issues.
As such all past letters from SMART (and illegal use of) concerning our PPE efforts are hereby declared null and void. Legitimate transactions we are currently conducting are being individually managed into our new process and we expect no negative impacts on these legitimate SMART efforts.
We expect to provide details in our website within several days.
Further, we continue our related efforts to identify all fraudulent activities the FBI. Anyone who has any fraudulent letters or suspected fraudulent letter are encouraged to forward them to [email protected] for our collaboration with the FBI. Please also note and appreciate that we get many complaints but can only act on them if we have the data.
Please contact [email protected] for any further questions, pending this website update of our new block chain process.
2021 SMART Update – January
Below is an executive summary of our key activities. For further details on these, please contact those listed below. For further information on SMART’s general activities or status on the other 15 Focus Groups not addressed here, contact SMART Executive Director Robert Carullo at [email protected] or 609-304-2904.
Topics:
Events:
Jan 22, SMART PROC GOVCON (Virtual)
Jan 22 & Feb 16-18; BoD Strategic Planning Committee
Joint Group Programs
Emergency Mgm’t Rapid Reaction Recovery (EM R3) Program
– PPE Acquisitions
Drive Across America (DAA) Program
– Initial DAA status and expansion to Drive Around the World
Jan 22 (Virtual) – SMART PROC GOVCON
The 18th Annual SMART PROC GOVCON will be a virtual event on Friday, January 22.
Please visit the conference website www.smartprocgovcon.com for the agenda, speakers, list of exhibitors and registration. Note that we will plan the typical, fuller event as soon as the recovery from the pandemic allows.
We have a great line-up of Senior government leadership from the following agencies:
Defense:
US Army Medical Research and Development Command
Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Defense
Medical Countermeasures Systems
US Army Medical Materiel Development Activity
US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
US Army Medical Command
US Army Contracting Command – APG
Army Futures Command, DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory
Joint Project Manager CBRN Sensors
Navy Medical Logistics Command
National Guard Bureau
Defense Health Agency
Defense Logistics Agency
National Security Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency
Civilian:
National Institutes of Health
Centers for Disease Control
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
US Department of Agriculture
US Department of Homeland Security
US Department of State
US Department of Treasury
State of Maryland Department of Commerce
Maryland Procurement Technical Assistance Center
Prime Contractors:
Leidos
Emergent BioSolutions
Goldbelt, Inc.
Jan 22 & Feb 16-18; Atlantic City, BoD Strategic Planning Committee Meetings
Jan 22 the BoD Strategic Planning Committee, chaired by Jack Pappas, BoD Founding MD member, will conduct an executive session on the results of the participation of SMART Major Business Advisory Committee Co-Chair, Anthony Georgiou in the Jan 20th Inauguration and Jan 21st Biden Admin strategic meetings. This follows his participation in a Jan 5th meeting of the Biden Transition Team.
The purpose of the Jan 22 meeting is to address immediate actions from the 20th & 21st and also plan for a Feb 16-18 Strategic Planning Committee meeting with invited Group Chairs of the priority topics/actions. This second meeting will be conducted as a series of small meetings with 2-3 leaders of each invited Group over the 3 days. Details will follow after the Jan 22 exec session with Anthony and Jack.
Further, we expect several of these Strategic Planning Committee working sessions as the Biden Administration and the 117th Congress stand up and as important as the private sector recovers from the pandemic impacts. SMART Executive Director, Robert Carullo is the POC for these meetings; [email protected] and 609-304-2904.
PPE Acquisitions; top priority of Emergency Mgm’t Rapid Reaction & Recovery (EM R3) Program
In reaction to the World-wide COVID-19 crisis, SMART Economic Development Group Chair, Robert Mazzuca, has formed a Joint Group Program, the SMART Emergency Management Rapid Reaction & Recovery Program (EM R3), to address the immediate US and International requirements to mitigate this crisis. SMART has a 21-year history of expedited actions for national and international natural and man-made disasters. The EM R3 program takes advantage of this experienced SMART network. The initial priority of the EM R3 Program is assisting key Federal Agencies acquire Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). A major objective is supplying Federal & State Veteran Healthcare Facilities.
The SMART EM R3 Program funding derives its authority for procurement through the Post Katrina Reform Act of 2006 and Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act which expanded reach and scope pursuant to President Donald J Trump’s March 13, 2020 emergency declaration under the Stafford Act – in all U.S. States and territories in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic.
This funding process as described is instantaneous. The current demand from medical facilities is supported by their individual budget allocation process for procurement to secure emergency and necessary PPE to protect front line medical personnel during this time of crisis. Funds will be placed into an escrow account within 24 – 48 hours of the conclusion of the visual verification of products in attestation of their availability. A senior DOD officer, currently DoD EM liaison for FEMA, provides EM R3 government liaison.
For participation in this program, please e-mail EM R3 Business Development Director, Brian Hakan at [email protected] or Robert Mazzuca at [email protected]
Drive Across America (DAA) Program
Drive Across America (DAA) is a SMART joint-group program led by our STEM Educ/Workforce Development Group and Veterans Group. The Mission is providing an integrated, national platform to conduct annual Drives across the country with these two major goals:
– Maintain a network of leaders in the automotive, motorsports & aerospace industries to promote STEM Educ/Workforce Development for their related industries.
— Led by Virginia Tech (VT) Alumni and the US Department of Education.
– Conduct charity program benefiting Veterans’ Unfunded Health Care local projects.
— Led by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter #1068.
Other Tech Topics: Other SMART Groups are led by the Energy Group with Electric Vehicles and the Transportation Group, addressing Infrastructure topics. The IT Group will provide digital documentation of the Drives to promote the program mission and goals, support the route stops, finish ceremonies and an Annual Awards Ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. The compiled data on the above topics will also support the program as an annual series. Topical reports on data gathered will be available for academia, industry, government and professional associations ( this is a major objective, supporting mission).
Honorary Host:
– Hon Patrick Murphy, Congressman (PA-08 2007-2011) & UnderSec Army 2016-2017
– Other Honorary (Gov’t) and Celebrity Co-Host requests are in process.
Funding will rely upon private sources; government roles are primarily endorsements.
DAA 2021: Planning is in process for Lap 1 with Gordon Bryan, VT Alumni; driving West from Wildwood NJ in Fall of 2021 to San Diego CA. The route will connect and showcase the many VT Alumni leaders in the automotive, motorsports and aviation industries and provide a charity benefit for local Veterans Unfunded Health Care projects at each stop.
We Welcome All as we prepare for 1st Annual DAA Awards Dinner; Capitol Hill, Fall ’21.
Contact Program Manager & Founder, Gordy Bryan at [email protected] or 484-802-4063 or Deputy PM, Bob Carullo [email protected] 609-304-2904.