Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee and a leading voice in Congress for IT modernization, emphasized today that the effectiveness of Federal and state IT systems carries tremendous weight in government’s ability to help the nation through the coronavirus pandemic. […]

In a letter to House leadership, a group of House Democrats urged leadership to block Federal spending on facial recognition technologies for law enforcement. […]

Three congressmen in positions of leadership sent a letter to the president today requesting a classified briefing on China’s cyber activity directed towards the United States and recommending sanctions against hackers. […]

Sen. Angus King, Jr., I-Maine, said July 17 that a recent hack of Twitter accounts and warnings of Russian-government attempts to steal coronavirus research show the need for the U.S. to adopt a stronger cyber deterrence doctrine of the type called for by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission that he co-chairs.  […]

Witnesses at the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s July 20 hearing on Federal IT modernization will call for swift action by Congress and agencies to modernize IT infrastructure and services. The witnesses will offer a host of recommendations to clarify and simplify funding and policy inputs that can spur faster modernization. The hearing – entitled “Federal […]

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has joined a growing list of legislators expressing concerns regarding Federal agencies reopening their offices amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for July 20 at 1:30 p.m. to examine the pressing need for further Federal IT modernization in light of the coronavirus pandemic. […]

A former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the United States Chamber of Commerce are the latest additions to a growing list of supporters for a key recommendation of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission–a National Cyber Director. […]

Less than two weeks before the chief executive officers of Google and Apple are scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee, the chairman of a different House panel is asking the companies’ CEOs to take steps to ensure smartphone applications do not compromise national security. […]

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., expressed concern in a June 10 letter over a sharp rise in the number of Department of Homeland Security employees testing positive for COVID-19. […]

With the base bills for the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act now out of committee in both the House and Senate, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission is continuing its work to see its recommendations in the final legislation. […]

The leaders of the House subcommittee responsible for drafting Federal privacy legislation agreed on Thursday about the need to resume working together in order to pass a national standard, while the panel’s top Republican called for clarity on liability protections. […]

Members of the House Committee on Financial Services and witnesses at a July 8 hearing weighed the public health benefits of digital contact tracing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 against the data privacy concerns of access to personal information. […]

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill for Fiscal Year 2021, which includes $65.87 billion in funding, maintains funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), and is substantially above the president’s budget request. […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Subcommittee approved by voice vote today legislation that would provide $24.6 billion of funding for a variety of Federal agencies and programs for Fiscal Year 2021. […]

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the defense funding bill for Fiscal Year 2021, which includes $694.6 billion in new discretionary spending authority for the Department of Defense, and a slight decrease in funding for the research, development, test, and evaluation of new technologies. […]

The chief executive officers of four of America’s largest technology companies are scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee on July 27, according to a committee press release. […]

The Senate is scheduled to vote July 20 on the nomination of Russell Vought to become the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.  The July 20 date was set by the Senate after a 47-44 vote on July 2 to invoke cloture on the nomination. […]

The House Armed Services Committee spent Wednesday compiling its version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a process that could continue into the late evening or tomorrow if necessary, said the committee’s chairman. […]

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. […]

The chairman of the congressionally mandated National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service told a Senate panel that Federal hiring practices need “a major overhaul,” and highlighted three reforms from the commission’s March report. […]

While the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently outlined key considerations for Federal agencies returning to work following the coronavirus pandemic, a GAO official said this week that the agency hasn’t yet seen a comprehensive and detailed plan from government that is comparable to some industry reopening plans. […]

The Federal Communications Commission said today that the total value of funding grants under its COVID-19 Telehealth Program rose to $157 million, after the agency approved $29.4 million of new grants.  […]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai asked members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee for $65 million to implement the Broadband DATA Act, a law signed in March to improve the accuracy of broadband deployment maps. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already begun work toward reopening its offices in accordance with phase one of the White House’s Opening Up America Again plan, but members of the House Committee on Homeland Security and witnesses at a June 16 hearing suggested that reopening plans should prioritize personnel health and safety. […]

House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is asking major Federal agency inspectors general to examine agency facility re-opening plans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that he aims to “ensure that Administration officials are cautious and prudent when requiring federal employees and contractors to return to federal office buildings.” […]

The House Armed Services Committee on June 5 released its markup schedule for the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – a must-pass piece of legislation that normally features plenty of technology-related provisions. […]

With several primary elections taking place today and the general election less than six months away, the group tasked by Congress to make recommendations to improve the nation’s cyber defenses made several additional recommendations to secure the 2020 elections. […]

The Department of Defense is planning on moving its network addresses into a bigger house, so to speak, but the Government Accountability Office says that the department needs to take more preparatory steps to plan before the move. […]

Four House Republicans have come out in favor of the Federal Communications Commission’s recent unanimous decision to allocate wireless spectrum to Ligado over the strenuous objections of the Defense Department (DoD) and other parties. […]