A group of bipartisan senators wrote a letter to Jennifer Granholm, Department of Energy (DOE) secretary, to voice their support for keeping the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy, Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). […]

Cybersecurity
President Biden

While the structure and details of President Biden’s upcoming infrastructure proposal are still mostly unknown, the President and his team have dropped some possible hints in recent days on items that may touch the infrastructure plan, including a boost in spending on scientific research, and attention toward infrastructure cybersecurity. […]

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has named five subcommittee vice chairs, including Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who will serve as vice chair of the Government Operations subcommittee that is a prime conduit for Federal IT-related legislation. […]

House Science, Space and Technology Committee Ranking Member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., is reintroducing legislation proposing the U.S. double its investments in research funding across several Federal agencies and create a national science and technology strategy. […]

AI
data

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the Data Care Act in the Senate on March 23, leading a pack of 17 senators looking to protect user data from hacks and hold companies liable for misuse. It is Schatz’s third time introducing the bill, having introduced similar versions in both the 115th and 116th Congresses. […]

Treasury

Thirty Democratic senators and House members are asking newly confirmed Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in a March 23 letter for the agency to focus its efforts to help states improve their unemployment insurance (UI) systems along the lines of legislation introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year.   […]

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., chairs of the Senate and House committees on Veterans’ Affairs, respectively, both predicted this week that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting effect on veterans’ access to telehealth services. […]

cybersecurity
DHS

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addressed a range of questions about the nation’s cybersecurity and spoke on how to better secure Federal networks in a March 17 House Homeland Security Committee hearing. […]

Cybersecurity

The nine Federal agencies whose networks were compromised in the Russia-backed hack via SolarWinds Orion products are close to finishing their remediation reviews, and the government is planning new deployments of unspecified security and IT modernization technologies to avoid a repeat of the intrusions, a senior Biden administration official said during a background briefing on March 12. […]

cybersecurity

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced has the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Industrial Control Systems Enhancement Act of 2021. The legislation will solidify the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) lead role in protecting critical infrastructure – particularly industrial control systems (ICS) – from cyber threats. […]

Department of Commerce

Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Bobby Rush, D-Ill., the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and chair of the Energy Subcommittee, respectively, sent a letter on March 12 to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo urging the department to address the country’s need for increased leadership in the innovation and deployment of emerging technologies. […]

broadband 5g -min

Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced a $94 billion Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act in the House and Senate, respectively. The bill also has the support of Clyburn’s Rural Broadband Task Force, composed of 27 House Democrats. […]

Legislation to invest in 21st century security technology, bolster Transportation Security Administration (TSA) funding and its workforce, and end diversion of passenger security fees was reintroduced by a bipartisan group of House representatives on March 11. […]

Joe Biden

President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act today, a day ahead of schedule due to a speedy transmission of the legislation by the House. The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill forms the centerpiece of the Biden administration’s initial legislative agenda. […]

Kids at computers hackers students education
data privacy, people, personal data, binary

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., reintroduced the Information Privacy and Data Transparency Act that would adapt state privacy laws and proposals into a national standard for data privacy. She introduced a similar version of the legislation in 2019, but it ultimately did not gain traction. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., long a prime mover in the House for Federal IT modernization, today hailed the inclusion of $1 billion of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act approved by the House.  […]

funding

After the transmittal of the bill took longer than initially expected, the House of Representatives now plans to vote on the Senate version of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act on Wednesday, March 10, according to multiple reports.  The House vote had been expected on March 9. […]

funding

As Congress closes in on pushing through a historic funding increase for Federal IT modernization, former Federal IT officials gave the latest legislative advancement a warm welcome today and offered an early look at some types of projects that might benefit most from quick investments.  […]

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. […]

federal workers workforce IT workers employees millennial -min

The Senate version of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan approved over the weekend features an amendment with a provision to extend relief to government contractors for paid leave, if they can’t work through the end of the fiscal year ending in September. […]

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