The House plans to vote Tuesday, March 9 on the version of the American Rescue Plan Act approved by the Senate over the weekend, setting the stage for the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill to become law with President Biden’s signature later this week. […]
The Senate voted March 6 to approve the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act after a lengthy amendment and debate process that pushed the vote into the weekend. […]
The Senate as of late Friday afternoon was continuing to debate the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which contains considerable increases in Federal government funding for agency IT modernization and security upgrades. […]
After some delay waiting for an official bill “score” from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Senate voted today to begin debate on legislation that embodies the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. […]
The Federal government’s response to the Russia-backed SolarWinds cyberhack – and the pressing need for government agencies to speed progress on putting in place cybersecurity protections including through the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – […]
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) would get a $1 billion funding increase in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, according to a preliminary draft of the Senate version of the legislation obtained from sources by MeriTalk. The Senate will debate its version of the legislation this week. […]
The House version of the American Rescue Act – born from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal unveiled in January – now features a provision that would provide $2 billion for the Department of Labor (DoL) to use to help states upgrade their unemployment insurance (UI) systems. […]
The National Security Agency (NSA) has released Zero Trust security model guidance for organizations to boost security of sensitive data, systems, and services. […]
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., are introducing legislation that will provide up to $15 billion in matching grants to increase access to broadband services in areas of the United States that are unserved by broadband meeting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) minimum definition of that service. […]
Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., indicated today that his office is considering the March-April timeframe for a hearing on the most recent FITARA Scorecard that was issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee in late December 2020. […]
The secretaries of Homeland Security and Commerce will work together on the one-year review of information and communications technology (ICT) industrial base supply chains ordered by President Biden earlier this week. […]
An executive order to be signed by President Biden today will order Federal agencies to conduct year-long reviews of their supply chain and industrial base risks, with the defense industrial base (DIB) and information and communications technology (ICT) industrial base among six key sectors identified in the order. […]
The House Budget Committee has completed its markup of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act, keeping the bill on schedule for a vote in the full House later this week before it heads to the Senate for consideration. […]
Officials from the Defense Department (DoD) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today that creating more effective defenses against sophisticated cyberattacks of the type used in the SolarWinds Orion hack may require further adoption of zero trust security concepts. […]
Beth Cappello, acting CIO at the Department of the Homeland Security (DHS), explained agency IT progress on a range of fronts on Feb. 10 at a virtual conference organized by FCW, including ongoing modernization efforts, implementing “SecDevOps,” and enabling implementation of zero trust security concepts. […]
Negotiations between congressional offices on President Biden’s proposal for a $9 billion funding increase for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) angled toward a compromise in the range of $5 to $6 billion of new funding before senators moved to drop the funding measure altogether from their consideration of the White House’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. […]
A proposed $9 billion funding increase for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) has been dropped from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan as Congress works to enact the plan through the budget reconciliation process, according to a knowledgeable source in Congress. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has extended by six months the term of its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Supply Chain Task Force, which was set up by the agency two years ago as a venue for government and industry to develop consensus strategies to improve ICT supply chain security. […]
Cloud security provider Zscaler said this week that its Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) service has been selected to be “prioritized” for Joint Authorization Board (JAB) FedRAMP certification at the High Impact Level through the General Services Administration’s FedRAMP Connect program. […]
A dozen tech-sector trade groups today urged House and Senate leaders from both major parties to include in coronavirus relief legislation President Biden’s proposal for $9 billion of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) that lends money out to Federal agencies to undertake IT modernization efforts. […]
Strengthening cloud service capabilities over the past year has been an important step for Federal agencies to both deal with pandemic-era network service demands, and bolster cybersecurity by meeting requirements of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program while using cloud services. […]
A group of eight House Democrats is pushing House leadership to include in the next round of COVID-19 relief legislation the $9 billion boost to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) proposed by President Biden earlier this month. […]
Chris DeRusha, who headed information security efforts for the Biden-Harris campaign last year, will become the Federal government’s next chief information security officer, Federal government security officials said today. […]
With the Biden administration taking office Jan. 20, the Federal CIO Council has named acting CIOs at five of the seven agencies where the position is helmed by political appointees who are obliged to step down at the end of presidential administrations. […]
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is looking to make the move from manual processes to automated ones, focusing on two strategic initiatives that will make cloud security even easier for agencies. […]
Maria Roat, who has been deputy Federal CIO at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) since May 2020, will become Acting Federal CIO and Acting Federal CISO effective Jan. 20, a senior administration official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
President-elect Joe Biden’s proposal to inject $9 billion of new money into the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to speed Federal agency IT modernization and improve security is drawing uniformly positive reviews from across the Federal tech community, mixed with notes of caution about how the proposal will end up faring in Congress. […]
Federal agencies have made major changes in their approach to network security in the recent past, spurred by last year’s move to widespread telework, the implementation of Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0, and the desire toward zero-trust network security, a panel of agency officials and experts explained. […]
To protect high value assets (HVAs), Federal agencies need to fully deploy the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, clearly communicate strengths and weaknesses to leadership, and ensure system owners have a stake in their CDM deployment, explained Jeff Eisensmith, former CISO at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a MeriTalk webinar on January 12. […]
Faced with evolving technologies, increased use of hybrid cloud infrastructures, and the continuing need to provide widescale telework capabilities, all Federal agencies should be looking at migrating to zero trust security concepts, experts from two agencies said this week. […]