House Democrats today chose Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – one of the most influential members of Congress on Federal government technology and workforce issues – as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee when the 119th Congress begins its work in January. […]

A new House bill aims to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin the process of updating its two legacy IT systems that manage and report on air quality data throughout the country. […]

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Reps. Donald Beyer, D-Va., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., joined MITRE this week at the grand opening of the company’s AI Assurance and Discovery Lab.  […]

The leadership of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, IT, and Government Innovation probed the General Services Administration (GSA) chief information officer (CIO) Thursday on the agency’s purchase of Chinese-made videoconference cameras that contained known security vulnerabilities. […]

MeriTalk’s mixologists are giving the artist formerly known as Cyber Smoke a new shake. As of 2024, the bi-monthly power networking event is called MeriTalk Tech Tonic. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, today introduced the latest version of their Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, which would provide Federal employees with a 7.4 percent pay increase in 2025. […]

Tech leaders from six prominent government agencies offered suggestions Tuesday for how they want to see the FITARA Scorecard categories improve, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity metrics. […]

New legislation introduced on March 9 by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., aims to strengthen in Federal law the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) role at the center of the Federal government human resources functions, and take steps to make sure that the agency’s leadership is not politically driven. […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., debuted a new version of bipartisan legislation in the House today that aims to “protect the federal workforce from politicization and political manipulation” by preventing wholesale reclassifications of Federal employees without the consent of lawmakers. […]

House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today he is preparing legislation that aims to reduce the Federal government’s ballooning improper payments rate – which amounted to at least $281 billion in fiscal year 2021 and was greatly exacerbated by fraud in connection with COVID-19 relief programs including unemployment insurance (UI) administered by states whose IT systems were overwhelmed by demand. […]

Leadership of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has introduced a package bill in the Senate that would update both the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which sets cybersecurity requirements for Federal agencies, and codify the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) that certifies cloud services as secure to use for Federal government agencies. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – one of the prime movers behind congressional approval of $1 billion of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) earlier this year –
emphasized the crucial impact that money will have on modernizing Federal agency networks and improving government cybersecurity and citizen service in keynote remarks at MeriTalk’s TMF Forward virtual event on Dec. 16. […]

During a House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing today, the committee took up two IT-related bills, H.R. 4688 and H.R. 5792, one of which was reported favorably to the House and the other postponed with some resistance from the GOP side of the committee. […]

House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., introduced bipartisan legislation on Nov. 23 that the congressman said would help to rebuild and strengthen the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its civil service leadership mission. […]

Federal CIO Clare Martorana confirmed today at the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s FITARA Scorecard 12 hearing that her office has received proposals from Federal agencies for $2.1 billion of IT modernization projects competing for Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) money. […]

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Reform and Operations announced the witness list for the FITARA 12.0 hearing on July 28. Federal CIO Clare Martorana headlines the list of four witnesses, according to a release today by the committee. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has scheduled a public hearing for July 28 at 2:00 p.m. EST for the release of the 12th edition of its FITARA Scorecard which rates major Federal agencies across a range of IT-related topics. […]

House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is asking the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to proceed with caution as it decides when and to what degree to have Federal employees return to their traditional office workplaces. […]

Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., ranking member of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, urged the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a May 18 letter to bring Federal employees back to their pre-pandemic workplaces quickly, or explain how the Biden administration will deal going forward with the billions of dollars it spends on currently underutilized facilities if Federal employees continue large-scale work from other locations. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on May 13 to approve and send to the House floor for consideration the Chai Suthammanont Remembrance Act (H.R. 978), which was reintroduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in February and aims to give Federal workers more information about office-place safety plans. […]

Technology leaders in Congress and industry groups with a stake in Federal IT both applauded the Biden administration’s move today to relax Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) payback requirements in order to quickly put $1 billion of new funding to work to shore up agency cyber defenses and upgrade critical systems. The change in traditional TMF […]

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. […]

A 2019 tweak by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the definition of a data center – and thus how the Federal government proceeds with its Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) aimed at sharply cutting the number of data centers that Federal agencies operate – is having the effect of leaving the government more vulnerable to cyberattacks, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official concurred today. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for April 16 at 9:30 a.m. to examine compliance with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). […]

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. […]

Will Federal agencies’ use of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) become a feature of the FITARA Scorecard that the House Oversight and Reform Committee issues twice a year to grade agency progress on IT modernization and efficiency? […]

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. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is in urgent need of modernization – one that includes reorganization, funding, and an overhaul of the agency’s current mission and staff, according to a recent report from the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., long a prime mover in the House for Federal IT modernization, today hailed the inclusion of $1 billion of new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act approved by the House.  […]