Cybersecurity

President Biden on Jan. 5 signed into law the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act that aims to prevent China-based corporations – and other foreign companies – from stealing U.S. intellectual property. […]

IT

Three Democratic senators today asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA) to take a “flexible” approach in deploying $1 billion of new Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) money for Federal agencies to use to improve their IT systems, including adjusting or removing requirements for agencies to reimburse the TMF with savings generated from projects that get money from the fund. […]

MerITocracy 2021
US tech
capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Democratic senators from Maryland and Virginia penned a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Michael Rigas urging them to clarify Federal agency reopening plans to continue maximum telework, and arguing that it’s “unsafe” to bring employees back to the office. […]

capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Several senators from both parties are calling on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to use existing authorities to provide hazard pay to Federal government employees working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. That proposed hazard pay would total a 25% increase in those workers’ current salaries. […]

capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on April 3 introduced an updated version of their Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act (DETER Act), which they said promises “swift and severe consequences” to Russia and other “foreign actors” if they attack U.S. political candidates, campaigns, or voting infrastructure. […]

voting booth, election security
Federal money spending government

A day after the Federal government fully reopened and less than three weeks after it faces another potential funding crisis, a group of Senate Democrats has been pushing to get back pay to low-wage government contractors who missed paychecks during the partial lapse in appropriations. […]

winter snow day capitol-min

A group of D.C.-area senators expressed their concern over guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that asks federal employees affected by the shutdown to continue paying dental and vision insurance premiums. […]

Members of the House and Senate announced introduction of the Telecommunications Denial Order Enforcement Act today, which would require the Trump administration to issue export denial orders for Chinese telecommunications companies caught breaking export control laws and sanctions. […]

elections, election security, voting

A bipartisan group of three senators–Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Cardin, D-Md.–last week introduced Protect Our Elections Act, which aims “to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require states to take steps to ensure domestic ownership and control of election service providers.” […]

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