The House of Representatives returned from August recess on Monday and got to work passing key pieces of bipartisan legislation to bolster communications security and modernize Congress’ work. […]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NITA) is seeking public comment on a grant program that will invest $1.5 billion to support the deployment of open, interoperable, and standards-based radio access networks (RAN) for wireless communications, according to a Dec. 13 Federal Register notice. […]

cybersecurity

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI, this week issued a joint advisory warning telecommunications companies and network service providers of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actors that continue to pose a threat to their networks. […]

FEMA

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded AT&T four Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracts to modernize the agency’s telecommunications and transition FEMA off the Networx contracts, AT&T announced. […]

The General Services Administration is extending the deadline – by one year – for Federal agencies to transition off of their Networx telecommunications contracts by implementing a continuation of services (CoS) clause, a GSA spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]

General Services Administration GSA
GSA General Services Administration

Despite a target deadline of March 31 for Federal agencies to complete half of their transitions to the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) communications services contract, less than 25 percent of Federal agencies hit that mark, according to data provided by GSA. […]

NASA

NASA awarded a $2.5 billion IT and telecommunications services contract for Advanced Enterprise Global Information Technology Solutions (AEGIS) to Leidos, according to an agency announcement. […]

Telehealth

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced a number of bipartisan bills out of committee in an executive session today including four with tech implications. Those bills are a telecommunications workforce bill, one on tech research, one that would map broadband connectivity and maternal health outcomes, and another to protect victims of domestic violence. […]

Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., have introduced legislation to expand the pool of communications service providers who could apply for Federal government funding to remove and replace network equipment made by firms the government judges to be “untrusted,” such as China-based Huawei and ZTE. […]

State Department

A rule change prohibiting Federal use of telecommunications services and equipment from companies that pose national security risks – such as China-based Huawei and ZTE – will cost $11 billion to implement and $2 billion each subsequent year, according to a July 14 Federal Register announcement from the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and NASA. […]

“Team Telecom” – a group of Federal government officials tasked with making recommendations on the national security implications of Federal Communication Commission (FCC) telecommunications applications – has failed to properly monitor Chinese government-owned telecommunication carriers, according to a June 9 report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). […]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has expanded telecom access for essential workers, including public safety and national security professionals. CISA said that as of April 19, it has provided priority telecom services to 65,606 additional public safety and national security professionals, in both the public and private sectors. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) struggled during the agency’s move to a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecom solution, raising concerns for future IT modernization efforts, according to an NRC inspector general’s report released September 5. […]

The General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Transition Ordering Assistance (TOA) task order is not supporting customer agencies in the government-wide transition to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, the GSA Inspector General (IG) found in a recent report. […]

White House

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