President Biden’s American Families Plan announced today proposes providing two years of subsidized tuition and expansion of programs in high-demand fields— such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)— at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). […]
Republicans in Congress on April 22 presented their own version of a framework to improve infrastructure in the United States. While it doesn’t look too much like President Biden’s much larger American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal, for tech-related issues the key overlap appears to be funding for broadband infrastructure expansion. […]
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. […]
Congress is about democracy – and congress understands that tech and innovation are changing everything – and that change holds peril and promise for all Americans and global democracy. […]
Federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) saved the government an estimated $53 billion through investigations in fiscal year 2020, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) reported in its annual report to Congress and the President. […]
Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced two separate bills that aim to boost United States leadership in quantum information science (QIS). […]
While House Government Operations Subcommittee members offered no firm direction on how they may try to further evolve the FITARA Scorecard, their discussions with witnesses at the April 16 hearing on version 11.0 of the scorecard issued last December brought to light a variety of Federal agency IT concerns that might come into play. […]
The top members of the House Government Operations Subcommittee indicated today that Federal IT modernization – and the role that the newly expanded Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) can play in furthering that goal – loom large in their thinking as they consider the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s ongoing tracking of Federal agency IT improvements via the FITARA Scorecard. […]
On April 15, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released a discussion draft of legislation that would regulate the exportation of American citizen’s sensitive, personal information to adversarial nations. […]
Bipartisan leadership of the House Government Operations Subcommittee introduced a bill today that would make sure Federal agency CIOs – along with chief data, financial, and human capital officers – are wrapped into the process of how agency leaders craft performance plans for their organizations. […]
Amid a strategic review of the deployment of its new Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials told Congress on April 14 that the agency will not begin EHR system deployment at a second VA site until the current strategic review is completed. […]
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted today to approve the nomination of Jason Miller for deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), sending the nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. […]
The Biden administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 discretionary funding request submitted to Congress on April 9 features $1.25 billion of new requests that would be aimed at undertaking further Federal IT modernization efforts. […]
With the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) now having gone over four years without a quorum, Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Jody Hice, R-Ga., are urging President Biden to appoint new members or risk the board having to cease operations. […]
Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform wrote a letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Kathleen McGettigan asking for information on OPM’s policies and procedures for interacting with inspectors general (IG) and cooperating with IG investigations – and suggested they could introduce legislation to update IG authorities. […]
A group of bipartisan senators wrote a letter to Jennifer Granholm, Department of Energy (DOE) secretary, to voice their support for keeping the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy, Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). […]
A bipartisan group of House legislators urged internet service providers (ISPs) and trade associations to participate in and help make consumers aware of the newly created $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program. […]
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked President Biden in a March 24 letter to move quickly on nominating a National Cyber Director as provided for under the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act. […]
While the structure and details of President Biden’s upcoming infrastructure proposal are still mostly unknown, the President and his team have dropped some possible hints in recent days on items that may touch the infrastructure plan, including a boost in spending on scientific research, and attention toward infrastructure cybersecurity. […]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has named five subcommittee vice chairs, including Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who will serve as vice chair of the Government Operations subcommittee that is a prime conduit for Federal IT-related legislation. […]
House Science, Space and Technology Committee Ranking Member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., is reintroducing legislation proposing the U.S. double its investments in research funding across several Federal agencies and create a national science and technology strategy. […]
After incorporating some of the National Security Commission on AI’s recommendations in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Reps. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., hope to incorporate more of the commission’s final recommendations in the FY 2022 NDAA. […]
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the Data Care Act in the Senate on March 23, leading a pack of 17 senators looking to protect user data from hacks and hold companies liable for misuse. It is Schatz’s third time introducing the bill, having introduced similar versions in both the 115th and 116th Congresses. […]
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Roger Williams, R-Texas, have reintroduced the Eliminate the Digital Divide Act, which is intended to expand rural broadband access in rural America. […]
Thirty Democratic senators and House members are asking newly confirmed Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in a March 23 letter for the agency to focus its efforts to help states improve their unemployment insurance (UI) systems along the lines of legislation introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year. […]
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., chairs of the Senate and House committees on Veterans’ Affairs, respectively, both predicted this week that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting effect on veterans’ access to telehealth services. […]
Federal CISO Christopher DeRusha said today that new IT modernization and security funding streams stemming from the American Rescue Plan Act represent a “down payment” on extensive work that needs to be done to improve Federal agency network security. […]
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addressed a range of questions about the nation’s cybersecurity and spoke on how to better secure Federal networks in a March 17 House Homeland Security Committee hearing. […]
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) IT Reform Act, which aims to increase congressional oversight of agency IT and would require VA to provide reports on IT projects before they begin. […]
Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate on March 16 would change the Federal Advisory Committee Act to make more transparent the work of advisory committees that provide expert advice to Federal agencies. […]