The Department of Commerce announced a preliminary agreement today for up to $6.4 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act for Samsung Electronics to bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research and development (R&D) to central Texas. […]

The Department of Commerce today announced a preliminary agreement with TSMC Arizona Corp. for up to $6.6 billion of CHIPS and Science Act funding that the company will use to make advanced semiconductors in its planned third U.S.-based semiconductor making facility by the end of this decade. […]

The Commerce Department said today it has reached a non-binding and preliminary agreement with U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing giant Intel Corp. to provide the company with $8.5 billion of CHIPS and Science Act funding to support chip making projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon. […]

The Biden administration is taking a swing at the Chinese vehicle industry with the news late last week that the Commerce Department will probe the national security implications of China-sourced vehicle tech that could pose national security concerns. […]

The Biden-Harris administration this week announced the creation of the AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), which will unite more than 200 AI creators and users, academics, government and industry researchers, and civil society organizations in support of the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy AI. […]

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Feb. 7 announced key members of the executive leadership team to lead the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI) – which will be established at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). […]

The Commerce Department said today it is closing in on its first agreement to provide funding under the CHIPS and Science Act, which was approved by Congress last year to make available up to $52 billion of funding to incentivize semiconductor makers to establish new manufacturing operations in the United States. […]

André Mendes, the chief information officer (CIO) at the Department of Commerce (DoC), announced today that he is stepping down from that post at the end of the year. […]

With a potential government shutdown looming over the horizon, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo warned lawmakers today of the “crushing” impact that a possible shutdown could have on the current work being done under the CHIPS and Science Act that passed last year. […]

The Department of Commerce (DOC) and its National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) comment are seeking industry insight on how to modernize the technology that NTIA uses to manage the use of radio frequency spectrum. […]

Department of Commerce (DoC) Secretary Gina Raimondo asked members of Congress this week to fully fund President Biden’s proposed 10 percent increase in the agency’s budget for fiscal year (FY) 2024, arguing that too much is at stake for U.S. economic interests to cut corners in the agency’s work. […]

Lifelong civil servant Gerald Caron has moved from his post as chief information officer (CIO) and assistant inspector general for IT at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). […]

The Commerce Department has appointed 16 experts from both the public and private sector to its newly created Internet of Things Advisory Board (IoTAB), the agency said in an Oct. 24  press release. […]

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published a final rule in the Federal Register that restricts cybersecurity export controls in an effort to prevent foreign adversaries from accessing hacking tools. […]

The Department of Commerce has appointed Oliver Wise as chief data officer (CDO). Wise will join the Department on March 14 according to a post on his Twitter page. […]

The Department of Commerce (DoC) is taking bids from small businesses to pursue a potential 10-year $1.5 billion enterprise information technology (IT) contract service. […]

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). […]

While the Commerce Department is losing its CDO, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center recently gained an experienced CIO from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report issued today that most of the largest Federal agencies made good progress in meeting goals to close data centers in Fiscal Year 2019, but also recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) take several steps to improve clarity of reporting on data center closures under OMB’s Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) issued in 2016 and modified last year. […]

Since its 2016 launch, the Opportunity Project, an open-data Federal program that partners public and private organizations to solve tech problems, has completed 100 products via nationwide virtual sprints, Director Drew Zachary announced at a March 3 FCW Citizen Engagement Summit. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a plan on Aug. 10 to prioritize Federal agency engagement in developing standards for artificial intelligence (AI), just before the deadline of an executive order issued in February that gave the agency 180 days to develop a plan. […]

The Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) took the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to task in a July 22 report that finds “control weaknesses” in FirstNet’s handling of a $336 million payment it made to its contractor AT&T. Separately, FirstNet said it has taken action to resolve the issue. […]

The Census Bureau did not implement security baselines and basic security practices for its cloud implementation, leading to “severe risks to 2020 Census cloud environments,” according to an audit from the Department of Commerce Inspector General released June 19. […]

China-based communications equipment maker Huawei said today that Google has begun the process of cutting off Huawei’s access to Android hardware and software services support. […]

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has issued a request for public comment “on ways to advance consumer privacy while protecting prosperity and innovation.”  The comment solicitation, NTIA indicated, is unlikely to lead to any rulemaking process at least in the near term.  […]

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), a Federal government entity within the Department of Commerce that is working with AT&T to build out a nationwide broadband communications network for first responders, said today that Sue Swenson is stepping down as chair of the FirstNet board, and Jeffrey Johnson is resigning as vice chair. […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said today that an internal IT systems failure–that has shut down its major electronic database for patent-related activities since last Wednesday–has yet to be remedied, and that teams are working to restore service following an ongoing five-day outage. […]

U.S. Census Bureau CIO Kevin Smith said that the Department of Homeland Security performed penetration tests this year that were unable to break through Census’ data safeguards, confirming the strength of Census’ cybersecurity programs for both its self-response website and in-field mobile devices. […]

The House today approved by voice vote the ACCESS BROADBAND Act (HR 3994), which would direct the Department of Commerce (DoC) to establish an Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. […]

Members of the House Energy and Commerce’s Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee expressed broad agreement today that the Federal government needs to do more to promote the availability of broadband service in underserved and unserved areas of the United States, but appeared to signal little in the way of any unified sentiment to coalesce around any of several existing bills that aim for that goal. […]