Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Ajit Pai

In advance of his appearance before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee scheduled for tomorrow, four House Democrats hammered Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai over statements he made in 2017 that the FCC was a victim of a distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attack which impacted its electronic comment filing system during the agency’s net neutrality rulemaking proceeding last year. […]

China-based communications equipment maker Huawei Technologies said in a statement late Monday that the ban on Federal government use of the company’s products contained in the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President Trump this week won’t do anything to improve supply chain security. […]

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., is pressing major electric utility companies for details about whether and when their systems have been penetrated by Russian-affiliated hackers, and at the same time is querying several Federal agencies about what they are doing to help utilities recognize and prevent attempts to break into their networks and control systems. […]

The U.S. Cyber Command (Cybercom) and the National Security Agency have joined the effort to protect the integrity of this year’s midterm elections, which are occurring under the shadow of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that 2018 is seeing more of the same. […]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wants to understand what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has learned from Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Confirmation (DMARC) reports about cyber criminals using email to impersonate Federal agencies. […]

MeriTalk today announced the winners of its inaugural FITARA Awards program, recognizing six Federal agencies who have made tremendous strides in modernizing their IT environments and one congressional leader who has worked tirelessly to promote the reform of IT acquisitions and adoption of cyber best practices. […]

Suzette Kent

Senate FY2019 funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) remains stuck on zero following the Senate’s approval earlier today on a 92-6 vote of a “minibus” appropriations bill that wraps together four separate spending bills including one to fund financial services and general government (FSGG) budgets. […]

By a vote of 87-10, the Senate today approved the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the corresponding conference report that ironed out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. The legislation to fund the Defense Department (DoD) and U.S. armed forces now moves to President Trump’s desk for his signature. […]

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced two pieces of legislation on Tuesday designed to improve cybercrime prevention and strengthen U.S. election infrastructure. […]

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at the Department of Homeland Security National Cybersecurity Summit today, called upon Congress to pass long-delayed legislation that would officially create the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) under DHS. […]

Health

Legislators and witnesses emphasized today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions the importance of improving interoperability of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and said interoperability improvements will not only save administrative time and money but also will improve the quality of care patients receive. […]

The House on Thursday voted 359-54 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2019 (HR 5515) and an accompanying conference report produced earlier this month that irons out differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today that he introduced legislation – the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Reform Act – which would codify the FedRAMP program in Federal law and address what the congressman said are shortcomings of the program, including the slow pace of implementing standardized practices and realizing efficiencies in the certification process. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s information technology and government operations subcommittees held a joint hearing Wednesday to key in on the most salient, persistent, and omnipresent issue in Federal agency IT: cybersecurity. On hand to testify were Federal CIO Suzette Kent, and Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, seeking to illuminate congressional inquirers on Federal agency progress to mitigate the wide range of cyber risks. […]

The White House called on the Senate to appropriate FY2019 funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), although it did not suggest a specific funding level in a statement of administration policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday. […]

The House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday approved the Securing the Homeland Security Supply Chain Act (HR 6430), which would authorize the Homeland Security Secretary to take a variety of actions to curb supply chain risk including actions to exclude certain contractors in order to address “urgent national security interest.” […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent, testifying today at a joint subcommittee hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that the Federal government intends to complete all of the tasks outlined in the Federal IT Modernization Report by the end of the year. She said that the majority of those tasks are already complete, and that many have beaten the timelines the government had set for itself. […]

Congress, in its conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019 released earlier this week, is demanding more transparency from the Pentagon regarding the agency’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract. […]

voting, election security

Today’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) covered the waterfront on election cybersecurity issues but came up with little that differed much from many of the other election cybersecurity hearings that have happened on the Hill over the last few months. The greatest hits were once again discussed–concerns over involvement in the 2016 election, threats facing the 2018 midterm elections, and how to respond to Russia cyber aggression towards U.S. election infrastructure and technology. […]

If industry and government can successfully collaborate on massive and necessary IT development and regulatory efforts, you may be able to hail a flying car roughly ten years from now in many U.S. urban centers, said government and industry officials at a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing today. […]

The House Homeland Security Committee today voted to recommend two bills, the Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act and the Department of Homeland Security Chief Data Officer Authorization Act, aimed at strengthening and solidifying IT operations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to guard against evolving cybersecurity threats. […]

After the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2019 cleared a major hurdle late yesterday with the release of a conference report that reconciles differences between House and Senate versions of the bills, techies across the Federal government are finding that IT modernization and innovation amendments for the Pentagon fared well in the legislation. […]

Categories