In a letter on Aug. 7, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote to telecom giants AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon and urged them to store less sensitive customer data. […]
With the year quickly coming to a close, the FedRAMP Authorization Act will be one of Rep. Gerry Connolly’s “big priorities” for legislation, with a markup session expected when the House returns from its August recess, Connolly said during MeriTalk’s Cyber Security Brainstorm today. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimate for S. 406, the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act of 2019, and found that it would cost less than $500,000 annually to implement. […]
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tom Cotton, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Aug. 7 questioning the tech giant’s ties to China. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wrote to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on July 22 sharing details about its forthcoming guidance on how to securely share .zip files. […]
Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., introduced the TOWER Infrastructure Deployment Act (TOWER Act) with the goal of increasing broadband deployment across the country and addressing the workforce shortage within telecommunications industry. […]
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a long-time champion of Federal IT legislation and oversight, announced August 1 that he will not be running for reelection in 2020, and instead will pursue opportunities in the private sector “at the nexus between technology and national security.” […]
The Senate, in a 67-28 vote today, passed a budget deal that raises Federal spending $320 billion over current levels and lifts the debt ceiling for two years, averting a shutdown. The Senate budget, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called “a strong deal,” is a companion to the House’s budget, which emerged from […]
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on July 31, introduced a bill to combat illegal robocalls. […]
In response to the 2017 Cambridge Analytica scandal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the Voter Privacy Act on July 31. The legislation would give voters greater control over how their personal information is used by political candidates and campaigns in Federal elections. Feinstein’s office said currently there is no Federal law regulating the collection and use of voter data by political organizations. […]
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, reintroduced the Advancing Cybersecurity Continuing Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Act on July 30. […]
Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., introduced new legislation on July 30 that would require the State Department to investigate the potential benefits of establishing a cooperative U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The bill, dubbed the U.S. -Israel Cybersecurity Center of Excellence Act, has garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has already introduced a companion bill in the House. […]
Senators and Federal representatives spoke about the challenges of and potential solutions to issues in Federal hiring – including in cybersecurity and IT – at a Senate Homeland Security Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management Subcommittee hearing today. […]
In an effort to become a more modern and technologically advanced office, the U.S. Copyright Office is working on a pilot program for its digital recordation system, beginning in the spring of 2020. […]
During today’s Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, legislators heard from experts from the private sector, government, and academia regarding regulations needed for blockchain technologies. […]
Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, pressed the Department of Homeland Security in a July 26 letter to deliver an overdue report on biometric identification technology viability. That report, the senators said, was due to be delivered on July 2. […]
Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., co-chair of the House AI Caucus, said last week that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have the potential to create “tremendous public good,” but also warned of risks the technology poses including job losses. […]
A principal author of Senate legislation that would pump $2.2 billion of Federal funding into development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies over the next five years said last week that investment would help a host of industry sectors including healthcare, energy, and agriculture. […]
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform approved the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act of 2019 on July 25. […]
The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress voted today to approve 10 recommendations related to modernizing and revitalizing House technology, including one proposal to recreate an offer to advise House members on tech issues. […]
The House Select Committee on Modernization heard testimony from state leaders regarding best practices and lessons learned on IT modernization. […]
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved four new pieces of IT-related legislation during today’s committee markup. […]
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., reintroduced the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (AIRWAVES) Act on July 23. The legislation will “encourage the Federal government to continue to free up spectrum for commercial licensed and unlicensed use and leverage the success of spectrum auctions to help close the urban-rural divide,” according to the bill’s sponsors. […]
Federal IT is on the right path and is making progress on modernization, but Congress will continue to push agencies to modernize faster and address slowdowns in processes, including FedRAMP, said Representative Gerry Connolly, D-Va. […]
Following the Federal government’s settlement with Equifax regarding its 2017 data breach, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pledged to renew his push towards passing data privacy legislation. In a statement on July 22, Wyden urged the passage of his Consumer Data Protection Act, which he initially introduced in November of 2018. […]
The Senate on July 8 unanimously approved the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, which was sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. […]
The House of Representatives has scheduled a vote this week on a bill that would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to craft rules regarding unwanted robocall and robotext messages that make sure those communications comply with the consumer protection and privacy purposes of Section 227 of the Communications Act. […]
A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the State and Local Cybersecurity Act of 2019 (S. 1846) would cost the government $31 million to implement between 2019 and 2024. […]
A bill introduced on July 18 by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., would establish a rotating consortium of universities with cyber expertise to advise the Department of Defense (DoD) on cybersecurity issues and coordinate academic feedback to DoD requests for assistance. […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee Tech Task Force met for the first time on July 18. The task force is charged with addressing tech industry issues on privacy, data security, censorship, antitrust and competition. […]