The road to better cybersecurity for government and the private sector looks like a long, uphill climb, with no concept of a finish line. […]
Congressional Democrats are moving forward this week with the budget reconciliation process that aims to create the legislative language for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. […]
President Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Neera Tanden faced questions on cybersecurity, IT modernization, and supply chain during her confirmation hearing today before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. […]
The Senate voted late Monday to confirm President Biden’s nomination of Denis McDonough as secretary to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The vote was 87-7. […]
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., reintroduced legislation on Feb. 3 that would work to improve information sharing between health IT systems to aid in the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. […]
After weeks of negotiations and disagreement, Senate leaders have settled on an organizing resolution that will officially put Democrats in charge of the committees for the 117th Congress. The resolution was approved Feb. 3 and is modeled after the 2001 organizing resolution, the last time the Senate split 50-50. Here are some names to pay attention to for Fed IT issues. […]
Following a Senate vote earlier this week to proceed with debate on a budget resolution, the House of Representatives passed a concurrent budget resolution with reconciliation instructions on Feb. 3. […]
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 9 at 9:15 a.m. EST on President Biden’s nomination of Neera Tanden to become Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]
In the first legislative step toward paving the way for easier passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced the text of a joint 2021 budget resolution on Feb. 1. […]
In a letter to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, nominee for secretary of commerce, Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., requested that the Department of Commerce keep the pressure on Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei, during the Biden administration. […]
Though the legislative machinations may be tricky, the bottom line is that the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is headed to likely Senate approval early next week. […]
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. […]
Nine Democratic senators are pressing the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the U.S. Courts for a briefing and information about exactly what data was compromised by the SolarWinds hack in a letter to the departments. […]
The Senate today voted to confirm President Biden’s pick for Secretary of the Department of Defense (DoD) Lloyd Austin. […]
The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual assessment of acquisition programs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found 10 programs to have been in breach of either baseline cost or schedule at some point in 2020 and five were in breach as of September 2020. […]
Ret. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, President Joe Biden’s nominee for Defense Secretary, faced a barrage of cybersecurity questions during his Jan. 19 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. […]
In a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), laid out his vision for the nation’s cybersecurity and promised to make it a priority if confirmed. […]
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., asked Office of Management and Budget (OMB) leaders in a Jan. 15 letter to halt implementation of the Trump administration’s 2020 executive order that created a new “Schedule F” classification for Federal employees in policy-making positions. […]
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Ryan Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., on Jan. 13 aims to invalidate a controversial executive order issued by the Trump administration in October 2020 that created a new “Schedule F” classification for Federal employees in policy-making positions and makes it easier to hire and fire them. […]
Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, have released a new bill that aims to improve science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science (STEM) education in rural communities. […]
The citywide curfews in the District of Columbia and Virginia suburbs Alexandria and Arlington expired at 6 am on Thursday, Jan. 7, after multiple security breaches at the U.S. Capitol building by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6. […]
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser has issued a citywide curfew beginning at 6 p.m. ET for the entire city of Washington following multiple and continuing security breaches today at the U.S. Capitol complex. […]
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on how to best distribute $3.2 billion of funding approved by Congress late last month as part of combined FY 2021 government funding and COVID-19 relief legislation to help low-income Americans access internet services. […]
After being excluded from the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the 117th Congress made the Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program (FedRAMP) Authorization Act one of the first bills passed in the House, passing by voice vote today. […]
After an unusually noisy holiday news week, here’s a quick catch-up. After threatening to derail a combined $2.3 trillion spending bill, President Trump on Dec. 27 signed combined FY 2021 government funding and COVID relief legislation. President Trump on Dec. 31 issued an executive order that will give all Federal government civilian employees a one percent pay raise in 2021. The House on Dec. 28 and the Senate on Jan. 1 voted to override President Trump’s Dec. 23 veto. […]
A bill introduced on Dec. 11 by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would require Federal agencies to report to Congress within seven days about any cyber attacks they have faced that would cause significant harm to national security or agency operations. […]
President Trump followed through today on threats to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Dec. 23. Both houses of Congress have already set up post-Christmas sessions to conduct votes aimed at overriding the presidential veto. […]
After congressional Democrats and Republicans broke a nine-month deadlock on Fiscal Year 2021 spending and further COVID-19 relief funding with their agreement on both fronts earlier this week, President Trump put the fate of the combined spending bill in doubt with suggestions to change the terms of payouts in the stimulus portion of the legislation. […]
A long weekend of deals and a late night of voting turned a nine-month stalemate into a 5,593-page COVID relief and omnibus measure to fund the Federal government through September 2021. The House and Senate approved the legislation late on Dec. 21, and sent the bill to President Trump for his signature. […]
The House and Senate were poised late Monday to vote on a $1.4 trillion omnibus Federal spending bill, that includes $25 million of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). […]