Congress

Energy Department officials eye 2027 date to stand-up cyber intelligence center

Officials from the department's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response told House members Tuesday that work within the threat-sharing pilot program has already shown progress and could use more resources from Congress.

  • By Carten Cordell

Four federal departments have not fully implemented cloud security practices, GAO says

The departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Labor and Treasury have made varying amounts of progress in applying crucial cloud security practices, but remain far from fully executing them, the watchdog found.

  • By Carten Cordell

Federal CIO says IDEA Act guidance coming this summer

Clare Martorana discussed the challenge of building out specific steps to get government agency websites to adopt common standards.

  • By Natalie Alms

Hey, Congress—if you're looking to cut spending, go after wasteful software contracts

Legacy software companies have spammed federal agencies with outdated, costly and ridiculously complex software assets that impede actual IT modernization.

  • By Matthew T. Cornelius

Veterans Affairs committee Dems offer bills to streamline VA operations

The two proposals would seek to consolidate business functions at the agency and independently verify and validate IT modernization efforts.

  • By Carten Cordell

New bills look to help small water systems tap cybersecurity help

New legislation looks to set aside $10 million to help subsidize fees for small utilities to join the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

  • By Carten Cordell

Federal procurement is poised for reform—here's what to keep in mind

Increased collaboration between the private and public sectors will help all parties involved understand how best to modernize government systems while minimizing potential disruptions to critical operations.

  • By David Santiago

Top senator says modernizing VA’s EHR 'is not optional'

After leading GOP lawmakers introduced legislation to terminate the deployment of VA’s new electronic health record program, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.—chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee—said upgrading the system “has to be done.”

  • By Edward Graham

House, Senate Dems push bill to prevent the next Schedule F

The latest legislative proposal to block presidents from unilaterally stripping federal workers of their civil service protections creates additional barriers to reclassifying employees.

  • By Erich Wagner

Inflation, workforce issues challenge defense contractors amid security pivot

The defense industrial base is facing workforce and inflationary headwinds just as the U.S. is refocusing its strategic lens on competition with China and Russia.

  • By Carten Cordell

White House looks to shore up public trust in government websites

Federal agencies need to use 'memorable' and succinct domain names for government websites, per guidance issued on Wednesday.

  • By Chris Riotta

House panel presses FAA to speed up modernization

Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure pressed an FAA official on what it would take for the agency to modernize faster, including its plans to update a system that caused a nationwide ground stop last month.

  • By Carten Cordell

Cyberattacks on Energy's National Labs draw lawmaker scrutiny

The attacks, allegedly conducted by Russian-based adversaries, occurred during August and September 2022, potentially exposing sensitive U.S. scientific research.

  • By Alexandra Kelley

Government watchdog warns on cyber weakness

The federal government has not yet addressed nearly 150 recommendations previously issued by the Government Accountability Office to help strengthen national cybersecurity, according to a new report.

  • By Chris Riotta
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Congressional Democrats propose an 8.7% pay raise for feds in 2024

The annually introduced bill would provide a 4.7% across-the-board increase in basic pay and an average 4% increase to locality pay.

  • By Erich Wagner

Fourth time around for vulnerability disclosure bill

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is taking yet another stab at getting the executive branch to tell Congress more about its process of disclosing (or stockpiling) zero-day bugs.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Defense industry decries possible GOP-led spending cuts

Trade group letter begs lawmakers to avoid another sequestration deal.

  • By Marcus Weisgerber

New funding flexibility could help extend the reach of the Federal Citizen Services Fund

The new pass-the-hat style funding tool could be tapped to fund cross-agency work.

  • By Natalie Alms

New ranking member could shake up a key Senate oversight committee

The libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has often butted heads with his own party and the opposing one, denounced federal spending and questioned agency authorities.

  • By Eric Katz

House Republicans are looking to cut agencies or specific feds' pay by reviving the 'Holman Rule'

The new Congress already has its eyes set on slashing funding at some agencies, and eliminating others altogether.

  • By Eric Katz

Shifting left on day one

An IT modernization bill currently moving in Congress would be improved by a focus on building security into software from the very start of the development lifecycle.

  • By Chris Wysopal