The House on Jan. 28 approved by a vote of 385-8 the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act. The bill was passed by the Senate in December 2019, and it’s next stop is the desk of President Trump. […]
Witnesses at today’s House Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing agreed that closing the digital divide and increasing internet adoption in the U.S. requires a combination of private sector competition, and financial and regulatory help from the Federal government. […]
Members of Congress and officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) discussed the value of data-driven suicide prevention strategies at a Jan. 29 House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing led by committee Chairman Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee today voted to approve two bills important to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its leadership and legal authorities. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill Jan. 28 to give Federal employees a 3.5 percent pay raise in 2021. […]
A new report from the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says that the agency made some headway on addressing IT problems in Fiscal Year 2019, but not enough to quell the internal watchdog’s concerns that lingering issues are leaving the agency exposed to major cybersecurity vulnerabilities. […]
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Jan. 22 that the Federal government’s backlog of security clearance has fallen to near 200,000, from its peak of 725,000 backlog applications in 2018. […]
For the second time in recent weeks, Congress is looking to spend $1 billion or more to help make the Huawei problem go away. […]
While touting the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) efforts to smooth the path for 5G wireless infrastructure and service deployment, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today that “accelerating infrastructure deployment [has] created a new challenge and opportunity.” […]
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon in a Jan. 17 letter to release a “long-delayed rule” that will “ensure providers can successfully use telehealth to treat individuals with substance use disorders.” […]
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Gary Peters, D-Mich., introduced legislation on Jan. 16 that directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a Cybersecurity State Coordinator program. […]
A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation on Jan. 16 that would use broadband service data mapping to identify areas of the country where high rates of poor maternal health overlap with a lack of broadband service access. […]
Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., and Bryan Steil, R-Wis., on Jan. 15 officially launched the Congressional Future of Work Caucus, which they said will focus on “challenges and opportunities prevalent in the U.S. economy,” including those posed by automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. […]
Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, applauded the Federal government’s handling earlier this week of public disclosure by the intelligence community of serious vulnerabilities it found in Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Service 2016 products, for which the company released patches. […]
House Oversight Committee members from both sides of the aisle expressed support at a Jan. 15 hearing for imposing some level of Federal regulation on the use of facial recognition technologies. […]
A bill introduced in the Senate this week aims to steer tens of billions of new funding toward civilian Federal government research and development efforts involving “industries of the future” including artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS). […]
The House Committee on Financial Services passed H.R. 4458, The Cybersecurity and Financial System Resilience Act of 2019, via voice vote on Jan. 13. […]
A group of bipartisan legislators led by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., sent a letter on Jan. 10 to Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai to thank him for his December 2019 vote to “modernize the 5.9 GHz band.” […]
Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Bobby Rush, D-Ill., introduced the Preventing Real Online Threats Endangering Children Today (PROTECT) Kids Act on Jan. 9. […]
In a nearly three hour hearing, the Committee on House Administration heard expert testimony regarding U.S. election security, with a specific focus on voting system security. […]
House lawmakers on Jan. 8 passed two telecommunication bills promoting United States leadership in 5G infrastructure and systems. […]
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a bill on Jan. 9 that would ban the United States from sharing intelligence with countries that use Huawei equipment and services for 5G network capabilities. […]
The House late on Jan. 8 approved H.R. 2881, a bill requiring President Trump to develop a mobile telecommunications systems and infrastructure strategy, by a 413-3 vote. […]
The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) wrote to Congress on Jan. 6 to thank them for including $425 million in the fiscal year 2020 budget for election security purposes. […]
President Trump signed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act into law on Dec. 31, 2019. […]
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., alluded to recommendations, ideologies, and methods of the forthcoming Cyberspace Solarium Commission report at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Jan. 7 – but resisted making the big reveal with harder news about the report’s findings. […]
The Department of Energy has taken the steps necessary to implement the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, the department’s inspector general (IG) said. […]
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that took effect earlier this week will not only erect a higher data privacy bar for citizens of the state, but also may put an important policy stake in the ground for Federal lawmakers who are weighing nationwide data privacy legislation. […]
Industry leaders shared their predictions for 2020 and beyond with MeriTalk, indicating the path to progress will often track uphill, and around plenty of curves. […]
Throughout 2019, members of Congress introduced numerous IT-related bills to their chamber, but they are scattered across various levels of the legislation process. With the 116th Congress approximately halfway through its two-year session, here’s a status update on where some of the top IT legislation stands: […]