Scott Kupor, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Eric Ueland, the nominee for deputy director for management (DDM) at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), both told lawmakers today that, if confirmed, each will make data privacy a priority.
During a joint confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the nominees pledged to review data privacy and cybersecurity practices.
Kupor, who is a managing partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, told the committee that he doesn’t want “to see a repeat” of what happened during the 2015 OPM data breach.
The 2015 hack rocked the government cybersecurity community and exposed data on millions of Federal employees to Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
“One of the first things that I will do is do a full business review, not just of all of our functions, but certainly data privacy and data protection,” Kupor said. “So, that will be one of the first orders of business when I hopefully have the opportunity to serve.”
“I think protecting data privacy is incredibly important, and we absolutely want a system where if people have concerns that there is an appropriate way to investigate that,” he added.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., noted that in response to concerns that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has improperly accessed the sensitive personal information of Americans via OPM systems, “the acting inspector general at OPM has confirmed that his office is looking into the matter.”
When asked by Sen. Hassan if he would commit to allowing the OPM Office of Inspector General “to operate without political interference in all matters,” Kupor responded by saying, “We will commit to do everything that is required under law to make sure that data privacy is protected and that the laws and regulations are followed.”
Ueland, who is currently the acting chief of staff of OMB, made similar cybersecurity promises to the committee.
When asked what his priorities will be as DDM, the nominee said he wants to make sure OMB is taking the necessary steps “to protect our cybersecurity [and ensure] the information of taxpayers and employees is advocated and insured.”
The DDM is responsible for developing and executing the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), which typically has a technology-driven list of longer-term goals.
Ueland said he wants to explore “what we can do with newer technology and ways to help downsize, rescope, and reorient the Federal government as the president is directing.”