The House Oversight and Reform Committee advanced the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 out of Committee on June 12. The bipartisan legislation, cosponsored by Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Will Hurd, R-Texas, would establish Federal baseline standards for all government-purchased Internet-connected devices. […]
On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee held a full markup hearing on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 and voted to approve amendments to include a Department of Defense strategy to leverage artificial intelligence supported robotics, extend dual-use technology programs, and increase recruitment of science and engineering professionals to the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). […]
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on June 12 in a move to improve the accuracy of the Federal government’s broadband availability maps. The legislation, dubbed the Broadband DATA Act, was introduced by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. and committee members Gary Peters, D-Mich., John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. […]
Today, Reps. Jim Himes, D-Conn., and John Ratcliffe, R-Texas introduced new legislation that would establish election interference as a Federal crime. The bipartisan bill, dubbed the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, would make it a Federal crime to hack a voting system used in a Federal election. […]
The House Appropriations Committee voted on June 11 to approve a spending package that includes a 3.1 percent pay increase for civilian Federal employees for FY20. […]
The House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization met today to discuss the implementation of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). […]
The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee proposed a total of $24.5 billion for FSGG discretionary budget authority in fiscal year 2020, which includes funding for election security, modernizing the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and protecting consumer data. […]
The Senate Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing today to discuss the impact of data brokers on financial data privacy, credit, insurance, employment, and housing. […]
The House Appropriations Committee Homeland Security Subcommittee allocated $63.8 billion in its draft of the FY2020 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget, including increased funding to efforts to bolster cybersecurity, election security, and new IT and border security technologies. […]
The House Appropriations Committee is putting pressure on the General Services Administration (GSA) to get agencies migrated over to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Contract, including a provision to push agencies to adopt the contract, as well as other IT oversight items for GSA. […]
The Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought wrote a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight other members of Congress asking for a two-year delay of a ban that prohibits U.S. government contractors from doing business with Chinese-telecommunications company Huawei, in an effort to give companies more time to comply with the legislation. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated on June 7 that H.R.1648, the Small Business Advanced Cybersecurity Enhancements Act of 2019, will cost about $2 million annually to implement, and $11 million in total between 2019 and 2024, if the bill is enacted. […]
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested information on how the Department of Justice (DoJ) is securing its offensive cyber tools in a June 5 letter to Attorney General William Barr. […]
On Tuesday, June 4, Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Todd Young, R-Ind., introduced a bill with the goal of assisting U.S. workers in the job market with more information, as automation filters into more industries. […]
A U.S. senator is raising concerns that China could be exporting surveillance capabilities to authoritarian governments, and is calling on the State Department to put more emphasis on preventing the spread of those tools. […]
Experts in constituent communication explained the reasons behind distrust of members of Congress, and provided technological methods of improving meaningful engagement between constituents and members at a June 5 House Committee on the Modernization of Congress hearing. […]
The House Armed Services Committee draft version of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released June 3, includes multiple provisions that would increase congressional oversight over multiple Defense Department (DoD) technology initiatives. […]
Senators John Thune, R-S.D., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act, which would set requirements for cities during the approval process of installing infrastructure for 5G. […]
The draft Financial Service and General Government budget released by the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday, June 2, only includes $35 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), putting funding below the White House budget request of $150 million and more in line with the $25 million allocated in fiscal year 2019. […]
House Democrats did not include funding for the Trump administration’s proposed merger of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), opting instead to increase OPM’s funding in the draft Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill released Sunday. […]
In contrast to the White House’s fiscal 2020 budget proposal that would freeze civilian Federal workers’ salaries next year, the House Appropriations Committee is proposing a 3.1 percent increase in those salaries in its Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill. […]
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the fiscal year 2020 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill that would see the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) get a bump in their funding. […]
The House Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Services and General Government fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget draft includes $600 million to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to aid states in modernizing election systems and administering Federal elections. […]
A group of bipartisan representatives introduced the Securing American Science and Technology Act of 2019 (SASTA) to address foreign espionage of academic research at higher education institutions on May 30. […]
The Association for Computing Machinery asked the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to adopt policy that disallows internet connections to voting equipment. […]
A group of five senators released bipartisan legislation that would create a national policy to securely deploy commercial 5G networks and establish an up to $700 million grant program to aid American communications providers in removing Chinese products from their networks. […]
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced the Protecting Data at the Border Act on May 22. The legislation would ban the Federal government from conducting warrantless searches of Americans’ phones and laptops when crossing the U.S. border. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing May 22 examining the impact of facial recognition technology on citizens’ civil rights and right to privacy. […]
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing Wednesday, May 22, on pending legislation – including bills related to electronic health records, and to make the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) website more accessible to disabled veterans – but took no votes on those measures. […]
Members of two House Veterans Affairs subcommittees sharply criticized Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials at a hearing on Wednesday, May 23 for the agency’s failure to keep up with expanding IT requirements for VA’s popular Caregivers program, which provides a range of services for post-9/11 wounded veterans. […]