Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig told Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., in late December that the IRS needs more money and changes to the tax code to better prevent and prosecute criminal uses of cryptocurrency, which has emerged in recent years as a favored medium of exchange involving ransomware and other cyber attacks. […]

In the wake of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report encouraging the Departments of Education and Homeland Security (DHS) to update K-12 cybersecurity guidance, several Democrat senators have written to both agencies urging them to heed GAO’s recommendations, and establish critical infrastructure council structures to advance the issue. […]

Federal agency chief information security officers (CISOs) told a Senate panel today that the security payoffs yielded by the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program are well worth the challenges that agencies have faced in implementing the program run by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

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The acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) told senators on March 18 that CISA is making efforts to complete deployment at Federal civilian agencies of the first two phases of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program by the end of this year as part of a push to shore up Federal cybersecurity after the SolarWinds Orion hack. […]

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Education Department CIO Jason Gray told Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., that the agency does not have the necessary authorities from Congress to set up a working capital fund under the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act, but said if it received that authority the department would use the money exclusively to finance IT modernization projects. […]

On July 2, Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced bipartisan legislation to accelerate emerging technology adoption by Federal agencies and expand upon the AI in Government Act which codifies an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) within the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

The nominee to be the next deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told a Senate panel this week that OMB can help speed IT modernization in the Federal government through a change in budget scoring rules, and through pulling together best practices developed by the CIO Council. […]

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Yesterday, legislation was reintroduced to make it easier for cyber specialists to lend their expertise to other Federal agencies. […]

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A group of 23 Democratic and independent senators have announced their support for the Fair Compensation for Low-Wage Contractor Employees Act, which was introduced Jan. 16 and would provide back pay up to $600 per paycheck for Federal contractors who were furloughed or had their hours reduced due to the partial government shutdown. […]

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The Senate unanimously approved the DHS Data Framework Act on Friday, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a data framework to integrate all existing DHS databases. […]

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On Thursday, Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced the Public-Private Cybersecurity Cooperation Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to set up a vulnerabilities disclosure program for DHS systems. […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced 14 bills out of its business meeting today, including legislation to protect against drone threats and to establish a framework for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that will improve data sharing across DHS’s numerous component agencies. […]

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official in charge of the agency’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) office told senators today that FAA is fast-tracking its efforts to launch a rulemaking that would establish remote identification requirements for drone aircraft. […]

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