GSA wants nominations for its new FedRAMP committee

GSA is accepting nominations for its new 15-member Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee, which is designed to offer recommendations on how to improve the cloud security assessment process.

GSA is accepting nominations for its new 15-member Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee, which is designed to offer recommendations on how to improve the cloud security assessment process. Yuichiro Chino / GETTY IMAGES

The new Federal Security Cloud Advisory Committee, mandated by the FedRAMP authorization bill passed late last year, will offer recommendations on the cloud security assessment program.

The General Services Administration wants nominations for a new public-private committee on the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, a government-wide security assessment and authorization program for cloud products. 

GSA is accepting nominations through Feb. 9, according to a Federal Register Notice scheduled to be published Wednesday.

The new committee comes from a mandate in the FedRAMP Authorization Act, which became law as part of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that passed late last year

The law tasks the 15-member Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee, appointed by the GSA administrator, with looking at ways to improve FedRAMP authorization processes and offering recommendations to GSA, the FedRAMP board and agencies. 

The council “will ensure effective and ongoing coordination of agency adoption, use, authorization, monitoring, acquisition and security of cloud computing products and services to enable agency mission and administrative priorities,” the Federal Register notice says.

The new group will be looking at ways to improve FedRAMP authorization processes, specifically aspects like the associated cost of authorization for cloud service providers and agencies. Another question: how to increase authorizations among small businesses.

The committee will have at least one member from an independent assessment service and at least five members from cloud computing businesses, in addition to government officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other agencies.