The partial Federal government shutdown is expected to continue into the weekend and likely beyond as both Democrats and Republicans remained far apart in negotiations on a new spending bill after meeting today but achieving no discernible progress. […]
H.R. 1, the For The People Act introduced in the House yesterday, includes new restrictions for Federal employees on participating in work related to their former private sector employers, and stronger restrictions on government personnel leaving for private sector employment. […]
On Thursday, President Trump signed the Forever GI Bill Housing Payment Fulfillment Act into law, speeding up IT modernization efforts at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). […]
Whether the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) will receive any funding for fiscal year 2019 remained an open question late Thursday as the House voted to approve a full-year FY 2019 appropriations bill that includes no funding for TMF. […]
On their second day in charge of the House, Democrats debuted H.R. 1, the For The People Act, which features a wide range of election security and modernization measures, including cybersecurity standards for voting machines, an election security bug bounty program, and a requirement for online voter registration. […]
The House Rural Broadband Caucus announced Thursday that Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., will serve as co-chair of the Caucus. […]
Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Will Hurd, R-Texas reintroduced today their Federal CIO Authorization Act, which is intended to elevate and reauthorize the role of the Federal CIO. A previous version of the legislation passed unanimously out of the House on Nov. 30, 2018. […]
Asad Ramzanali is now a senior technology policy adviser to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Previously, Ramzanali served as a legislative fellow specializing in banking and technology policy for Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. […]
The 116th Congress was sworn into office today, and with it, the House of Representatives was on track late today to vote on a package of bills aimed at ending the partial Federal government shutdown and reopening the government, according to House scheduling information provided by C-SPAN. […]
The House Rules Committee, newly controlled by Democrats, today announced a rules package that changes the name of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. […]
The House of Representatives’ rules package, which will be introduced later today, includes a new “Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.” The package, which is backed by newly minted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., includes three titles and is expected to pass. The title that includes the new Select Committee will be up for a vote on Friday. […]
he partial Federal government shutdown is expected to last at least until Friday, as congressional leaders left a meeting with President Donald Trump today apparently with no deal in place. […]
A partial government shutdown was still in effect as of Monday, December 24, 2018, after Congress and the Trump administration could not come to an agreement on a government funding bill over the weekend. […]
he Federal government was poised for a partial shutdown beginning at midnight tonight despite House and Senate action aimed at avoiding that. […]
On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act as part of the larger Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2017. […]
President Trump said in a statement on Thursday that he would veto any spending bill that doesn’t include funding for a border wall. […]
The House Democratic Caucus has elected Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the 116th Congress that begins in January 2019. […]
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., today wrote Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and called for her to “take urgent action to protect America’s pipelines from cyber attack.” The letter follows a report released today from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which detailed issues American pipelines face defending against cyber attacks. […]
The House and Senate have approved H.R. 7387–the SECURE Technology Act–which combines existing bills that would aim to reduce Federal government supply chain threats and establish a bug bounty program and vulnerability disclosure policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]
Rachel Holland has left her post in Rep. Will Hurd’s office after four years of service to the Texas Republican. […]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., introduced a short-term spending bill on Wednesday, that would fund the government through February 8, 2019, and avoid a government shutdown later this week. The bill must be approved by both chambers of Congress before reaching President Trump’s desk for his signature. “The measure will provide the resources necessary […]
On Monday, the Senate unanimously passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act. The READI Act will “ensure more people receive relevant emergency alerts on their mobile phones, televisions, and radios, explore new ways of alerting the public through online video and audio streaming services, track and study false alerts when they occur, and improve the way states plan for emergency alerts,” according to a press release from the bill’s sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. The bipartisan legislation was also championed by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. […]
A Google spokesperson declined today to confirm or deny a report from The Intercept that an internal struggle between Google’s privacy team and executives managing its Dragonfly China search engine project has led to an effective shutdown of the effort. […]
The Senate Intelligence Committee released two reports on Monday finding that Russian social media influence operations–which came to broad attention in the U.S. following the 2016 presidential election–are still ongoing in the U.S. […]
The Senate on Dec. 13 approved by unanimous consent HR 6227, the National Quantum Initiative Act, which would create a Federal program to speed quantum research and development “for the economic and national security” of the United States. […]
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on Thursday the Democratic committee assignments for the new congress. […]
A group of 15 Democratic senators introduced a new piece of data privacy legislation on Wednesday. The legislation, named the Data Care Act, will, according to the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, “require websites, apps, and other online providers to take responsible steps to safeguard personal information and stop the misuse of users’ data.” […]
While yesterday’s hearing held by two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees was a mostly upbeat affair given the better grades earned by several Federal agencies on the committee’s latest FITARA scorecard, committee members also grilled witnesses about impediments that stand in the way of agencies implementing a key aspect of the MGT (Modernizing Government Technology) Act. […]
As MeriTalk reported earlier this month, the Senate today took action on the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA Act) and passed the legislation under unanimous consent. […]
In today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the Committee dug into what it called “China’s non-traditional espionage against the United States.” During the hearing, senators heard from cybersecurity, and intelligence experts about China’s attempts to use cybersecurity attacks and intellectual property theft to advance its global standing. […]