The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) on Tuesday approved by voice vote a bill which would allow Federal agency heads to limit access to certain websites or deploy cybersecurity measures if they feel that it is necessary to secure their IT systems, but not before strong vocal dissent about the scope of the legislation. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Members of the House Energy and Commerce’s Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee expressed broad agreement today that the Federal government needs to do more to promote the availability of broadband service in underserved and unserved areas of the United States, but appeared to signal little in the way of any unified sentiment to coalesce around any of several existing bills that aim for that goal. […]
A large group of former Federal government officials–including national security and other experts from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Justice–urged Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in a letter released yesterday to disclose the 2020 Census’ data protection and cybersecurity policies. […]
Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a July 13 blog post that the Federal government, along with lawmakers in governments worldwide, must develop appropriate regulations for the use of facial recognition technology by individuals, organizations, and government entities. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
The House Energy and Commerce Committee today approved by voice vote a measure that would direct Federal agencies to study Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and whether to regulate them, along with two others aimed at spurring further rollout of broadband services in mostly rural areas of the United States. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said Monday in a letter to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that DoJ reached a premature conclusion in stating that stolen personal information used in a credit fraud case in Virginia was acquired from the 2015 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach. […]
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee today voted to approve the nomination of Robert Wilkie to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), moving the nomination to a vote by the full Senate. […]
Amid growing fears of large-scale cyberattacks–ranging from attacks on infrastructure, to cyber espionage that threatens national security, to a “terabyte of death”–Congressional lawmakers are calling for a more clearly defined strategy for responding to such attacks. […]
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said in a tweet late Tuesday that he supports a “full investigation” by Federal government authorities into Facebook over its dealings with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica including the firm’s use of Facebook user data on millions of Americans to construct voter profiles. […]
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2019 will head into conference next week when legislators return from the Fourth of July recess. The $700+ billion must-pass defense spending bill has been approved in both the House and Senate, and now the two chambers must come together to reconcile differences in the legislation and re-vote the unified bill before it can land on President Trump’s desk for signing. […]
With cybersecurity threats on the rise, most recently seen in a Chinese hack of a Navy contractor, the Department of Defense is taking new steps to ensure security, in part by putting more of the onus on contractors. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2019 today moved closer to final passage, thanks to actions in both House and the Senate. […]
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved by voice vote today S.645, the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act, that would require the Secretary of Commerce to assess and analyze the impact of broadband service deployment and adoption on the United States economy. […]
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said yesterday at a meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee she believes committee members are closing in on agreement on a bill that would pilot a predictive analytics program to improve screening tools for the child welfare system. […]
The Trump administration’s ambitious plan to overhaul numerous aspects of Federal civilian agencies received a decidedly mixed reception today at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as several committee members grilled the hearing’s sole witness–Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget–on a range of issues including how the reorganization plan would impact the Federal workforce. […]
Several members of Congress in a June 20 letter urged Google to “reconsider” its business relationship with China-based communications equipment maker Huawei, saying that the partnership between the two companies “could pose a serious risk to U.S. national security and American consumers” because of Huawei’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, which led U.S. intelligence agencies earlier this year to urge Americans not to use Huawei products and services. […]
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at a hearing today that the Federal government’s focus going forward should be to “prevent and deter” interference with U.S. elections like that perpetrated by the Russian government in 2016, and to “harden” election infrastructure against future interference from Russia and other malicious parties. […]
Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., today introduced legislation that would create a Federal Acquisition Security Council to oversee creation of a government-wide strategy to address supply IT chain security and mitigate supply chain security threats from IT equipment and service purchases. […]
The Senate this afternoon convened to discuss H.R. 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA), which is headed for a vote later tonight and is expected to be approved. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), passed by Congress in December 2014, represented the first major legislative overhaul of Federal IT in nearly 20 years. Beginning in November 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released two scorecards a year grading agencies’ performance under the law. Suffice to say, agencies haven’t always been making the GAO’s Honor Roll, with plenty of Cs and Ds to go around. However, many agencies have made significant improvements over the last 3 years. […]
The Director of the Office of Personnel Management said this week that the Federal government should take cues from the private sector “gig economy” to leverage quick talent acquisition and short-term work, drawing forceful pushback from a government employees union. […]
Witnesses at a Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet subcommittee hearing about mobile apps on Tuesday pressed senators for action on making more spectrum available for 5G and other services. […]