Senior House Democrats have introduced legislation to reverse President Trump’s controversial executive order that would create a new “Schedule F” classification for Federal employees in policy-making positions and make it easier to hire and fire them. […]
A group of Democratic senators wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) to request that the IG investigate alleged warrantless domestic surveillance of phones by DHS’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) component. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., whose northern Virginia congressional district is home to a multitude of Federal government employees, is working on legislation that would aim to overturn last week’s controversial White House executive order that would create a new classification of Federal employees in policy-making positions and make it easier to hire and fire them. […]
President Trump this week signed the US SAFE WEB Extension, which reauthorizes a 2007 law that permits the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action to protect U.S. consumers against cross-border fraud and deception using the internet. […]
A new bill introduced in the House this week would crimp the ability of the White House to curtail Internet access for U.S. citizens, and would put a short time limit on any service curtailment absent approval from Congress. The bipartisan bill offered by Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va., would limit the […]
Count Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., as a “no” vote at this point on at least one aspect of the Defense Department’s (DoD) request for information (RFI) issued last month that solicits public input on a range of issues involving the Pentagon’s plans to deploy 5G wireless services. […]
A group of five senators has sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urging the agency not to follow through with a plan to expand its collection of biometric information. […]
The Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a congressionally-chartered group charged with delivering recommendations to improve U.S. cybersecurity, today issued its latest in a series of white papers on the subject – this time urging the U.S. to take steps to protect critical information and technology (ICT) supply chains from Chinese and other adversarial nations. […]
Reps. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a bill Oct. 16 to improve cybersecurity at K-12 schools. The Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act would work to promote more access to security information, better track attack trends, and increase the number of cybersecurity experts in schools. […]
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee want the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is handling cybersecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, they said in an October 9 letter. […]
Chairs of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Darren Soto, D-Fla., re-introduced legislation earlier this week to expand government use and the definition of blockchain, ensuring the use of the technology for electronic records and signatures. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today that the $1 billion funding increase for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) included in the slimmed down HEROES Act pandemic relief legislation is probably not big enough to spur Federal agencies to undertake widespread IT modernization, but agreed that winning approval for the huge funding increase would be a good first step. […]
New bipartisan legislation is aimed at addressing transparency issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers (VAMC). […]
On Sept. 30, the House of Representatives approved by voice vote, the Chai Suthammanont Remembrance Act, which is legislation that aims to protect Federal employees from COVID-19. […]
Weeks after the Department of Defense (DoD) asked industry for information regarding how the department could “own and operate 5G networks for domestic operations,” several top Republican senators sent a letter to the White House this week urging the President to “remain on the free-market path” in the 5G wireless race. […]
The House on Sept. 30 approved the Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act, a bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that would require the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services group to establish a Modernization Centers of Excellence (CoE) “to facilitate the adoption of modern technology by executive agencies.” […]
The House of Representative this week voted to approve a collection of bills that aim to improve cybersecurity in the energy sector, inform the use of emerging technologies, and establish R&D plans. […]
After multiple delays of the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization program, a critical part of the project is set to “go live” later this month, VA officials told members of Congress on Sept. 30. […]
President Trump today signed a continuing budget resolution that will fund Federal government operations at Fiscal Year 2020 spending levels through Dec. 11. The President’s approval of funding legislation passed by the House Sept. 22 and the Senate Sept. 30 narrowly averted a government shutdown following the end of FY2020 yesterday. […]
Federal legislation to help strengthen the cybersecurity of state and local governments through a Department of Homeland Security grant program passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 30 – with impetus for the legislation coming from across the U.S. in the form of numerous ransomware and other attacks in recent years. […]
The eight members of Congress that comprised the Future of Defense Task Force signed off on the group’s bipartisan work, which was months in the making and recommended several items pertaining to artificial intelligence, cyber, and the technology workforce. […]
House Democrats released an updated version of their $2.2 trillion HEROES Act COVID-19 relief legislation yesterday that retains over $1 billion in proposed new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). […]
The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress approved its fifth and final package of recommendations last week to “to make Congress work better for the American people.” […]
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate last week aims to reduce executive branch power over telecommunications and the internet by preventing the president from using emergency powers to shut those services down. […]
Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., became the chair today of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation, one of the chamber’s primary panels with jurisdiction over cybersecurity issues. […]
The Government Accountability Office said in a report that in order to fully implement the White House’s National Cyber Strategy a “clarity of leadership” is “urgently needed.” […]
Several former commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission warned the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the consequences of delay in passing a Federal privacy standard during a hearing on Wednesday. […]
MeriTalk caught up with the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Director of the Data and Privacy Project Michelle Richardson, a witness for the committee back in April, to get her take on this week’s Senate hearing, what has changed recently in the privacy world, and the prospects for a Federal privacy standard. […]
A group of Republican senators introduced a bill to create a national data privacy standard, formally bringing forth a bill that had been released as a staff draft almost a year ago. […]
A key Congressman on the House Armed Services Committee spoke in support of three technology bills Friday, expressing optimism with the “bipartisan and bicameral” legislation as the legislative calendar for this session of Congress winds down. […]