While business owners told members of the House Small Business Committee at a March 4 hearing how they use blockchain in their operations, a question from the committee’s chairwoman led to talk of bigger operations that could benefit from blockchain – state governments. […]
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said today he expects President Trump to sign into law “in just a few days” legislation approved by the Senate late last month that will provide up to $1 billion to pay for smaller U.S.-based communications providers to remove and replace network equipment made by China-based suppliers Huawei and ZTE, among others. […]
During today’s House Oversight Committee hearing, officials from GAO and the General Services Administration (GSA) answered questions on the EIS transition from a frustrated Committee. […]
House Appropriations Committee members raised concerns at a March 4 hearing over the size of President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with one calling it “irresponsible” and asking Secretary Robert Wilkie to justify the request. […]
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, co-chair of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Committee that is set to release recommendations next week on how to better defend the U.S. against cyber threats, indicated today that Federal government coordination and new thinking about deterrence will be among the report’s major findings. […]
Today’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing on DHS’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget request covered a wide array of topics. However, Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), spent much of his time defending a budget cut to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., introduced legislation Feb. 28 that would increase the number of children who have internet access in their homes to close the “homework gap.” […]
The New Democrat Coalition (NDC) released its 2020 policy priorities on Feb. 28. The priorities cover a wide breadth of issues, but there were a handful focused on the technology sector. […]
On Feb. 27, the Senate passed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 sending the bill to President Trump’s desk. […]
After facing IT challenges with the implementation of the Forever GI Bill, Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Robert Wilkie said during a Budget Request hearing for Fiscal Year 2021 that the department needed to look at its entire IT infrastructure’s readiness. […]
In a Feb. 26 letter to Dana Deasy, CIO of the Department of Defense (DoD), Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., stressed the importance of vulnerability disclosure programs. […]
Congressional staffers on House and Senate committees with strong interest in cybersecurity issues said today they are watching for “low-hanging fruit” in the form of easy-to-enact legislative proposals expected to make up some of the recommendations in the Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) report set to be released on March 11. […]
The National Governors Association (NGA) urged Congress to take action on key pieces of legislation that will help harden state and local government’s (SLGs) cybersecurity defenses. […]
While senators at a Feb. 25 Appropriations Committee hearing agreed with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf about the agency’s cybersecurity mission priority, election security cuts in the President’s Budget proposal raised questions from committee members. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the Cybersecurity Vulnerability Identification and Notification Act of 2020 (H.R. 5680) could slightly lower the deficit, but not by a significant amount. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. on Jan. 27, would authorize the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue administrative subpoenas in rare […]
The security clearance backlog is “decreasing, but still problematic,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said at an event held today with industry leaders at George Mason University in Fairfax. […]
In a letter to ShiftState Security Chief Security Officer Andre McGregor, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., challenged the results of an audit ShiftState was supposed to have conducted of the Voatz voting app. […]
The House of Representatives is looking to strengthen public safety network resiliency with two new pieces of legislation. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) IT Reform Act of 2019 passed the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Feb. 13, paving the way for its move to the Senate floor. […]
In a recent report about 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ cybersecurity posture, each of the campaigns scored a “B” letter grade or better, and showed increased focus and investment in good cyber hygiene. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is hosting a roundtable discussion for private sector companies to discuss what challenges they face when seeking Federal security clearances on Feb. 24 at George Mason University. […]
Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced the Ethical Use of Facial Recognition Act on Feb. 12 which would institute a moratorium on all Federal use of facial recognition technology until Congress passes legislation outlining “specific uses for the data” collected. […]
A Senate bill that would provide government funding for smaller communications service providers to remove equipment in their networks supplied by Huawei, ZTE and other China-based suppliers would cost $726 billion over ten years to implement, the Congressional Budget Office said on Feb. 11. […]
While the 2020 election cycle has been officially underway for less than a month, there have already been significant technology concerns. While the most notable tech concern was the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) raised additional concerns in a report published Feb. 13. […]
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has drafted a bill that would create a U.S. Federal data strategy agency that would protect citizens’ data and have the authority to enforce data practices across the U.S. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee advanced the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act out of committee on Feb. 12. […]
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved two bills on Feb. 12 to harden the U.S. electric grid against cyberattacks. […]
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Mark Meadows, R-N.C., introduced legislation Feb. 13 to codify the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) Centers of Excellence (CoE) program. […]
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights (OCWR) failed to incorporate cybersecurity management practices into the planning of its Secure Online Claims Reporting and Tracking E-filing System (SOCRATES) project. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic health record (EHR) modernization launch in Spokane, Washington was indefinitely delayed on Feb. 10, leaving members of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization concerned about agency transparency. […]