President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort – which has a mission to find ways to reduce government spending and potentially do away with any number of government operations – went from a mostly aspirational advisory exercise to a potentially powerful political force on Thursday. […]
The Peace Corps – an independent Federal agency that dispatches volunteers around the world – has made “significant progress” in enhancing its information security posture over the past year, but it is “falling short” of meeting what the White House defines as an “effective level of security.” […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) is making progress in reducing costs related to improper payments through its Advana centralized data and analytics platform, but the agency continues to struggle with some of its financial IT systems, a Government Accountability Office official said in testimony to House lawmakers this week. […]
While a senior CrowdStrike official issued blanket apologies to House lawmakers at a Sept. 24 subcommittee hearing for the widespread Windows outages sparked on July 19 by a faulty software update from the company, leaders of the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee positioned the CrowdStrike outage – and process improvements the company is undertaking to avoid any repeat performance – also as a teachable moment for all concerned. […]
The increasing prevalence of data localization laws around the world drew several angles of criticism at a Sept. 20 House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, and a call from some witnesses for the U.S. to press harder for international leadership in technology laws and policy. […]
Artificial intelligence and other automation technologies are essential for the Department of Defense (DoD) to maintain its technological edge over adversaries like China – but increasing the use of both of those will require more funding and leveraging of industry capabilities, witnesses said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Monday. […]
The Commission on the National Defense Strategy (NDS) warned lawmakers today that the Defense Department’s (DoD) NDS is outdated, and the growing global threat landscape calls for immediate action and fundamental changes in Pentagon operations. […]
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) is calling on Congress to make permanent the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s (PRAC) Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) to conduct more effective oversight of all Federal spending. […]
As countries such as China try to obtain U.S. advanced technologies with military potential, an official from the Commerce Department said today that multilateral export controls will be crucial to maintain national security and stay ahead in the global tech race. […]
During a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing today, witnesses underscored urgent concerns regarding the Department of Defense’s (DoD) inefficient spending practices, emphasizing a critical need for reform. […]
Lawmakers at a House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hearing on July 23 issued a bold call for CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping to dismantle the country’s “Great Firewall,” but witnesses at the hearing had other suggestions. […]
Members of the House Financial Services Committee voiced concern over the dangers of AI-fueled bias in housing services during a July 23 hearing. […]
Witnesses at a Senate hearing today strongly urged lawmakers to enact comprehensive privacy legislation, calling for robust protections for individuals and clear regulatory guidelines for businesses as they develop and deploy artificial intelligence systems. […]
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee this week pushed for increased funding to use emerging technology-driven solutions to combat illicit activity at the U.S.-Mexico border, while witnesses at a subcommittee hearing argued for more highly trained U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) personnel to leverage the advantages that newer technologies can create for law enforcement. […]
Members of Congress are sounding the alarm on the shortage of cybersecurity and IT workers across the United States, with lawmakers noting that there are over 500,000 open cyber positions. […]
The Pandemic Responsibility and Accountability Committee (PRAC) has released a new report for Federal and state program administrators that outlines recommendations on how to better protect government programs from fraud and abuse – including by upgrading out-of-date IT systems. […]
A panel of cyber experts expressed their support this week for the most recent congressional effort to create national data privacy standards, but also voiced some criticisms of draft legislation released last month to push those proposed standards forward. […]
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Thursday that he is launching a governmentwide investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “ongoing efforts to target, influence, and infiltrate every sector and community in the United States.” […]
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. […]
Academic and private sector experts laid out a list of recommendations today for Senate lawmakers to consider as they wrestle with the problem of helping defense industrial base (DIB) companies compete for necessary workforce talent. […]
Witnesses warned lawmakers at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing on Feb. 27 that U.S.-made technology is getting into Russian military hands and weaponry despite sanctions in place aimed at preventing that from happening. […]
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. – chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, IT, and Government Innovation – is probing the General Services Administration’s (GSA) chief information officer (CIO) after the agency’s inspector general (IG) found that it had purchased Chinese-manufactured videoconference cameras with known security vulnerabilities. […]
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, are probing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Treasury Department over incomplete Federal spending data on the USAspending.gov website. […]
As the Federal government is looking to recover and make sense of the rampant unemployment insurance (UI) fraud seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts today told members of Congress that the government is in dire need of a technology overhaul to keep up with fraudulent actors who are leveraging emerging technologies such as AI to steal taxpayer money. […]
Officials from the health care and education sectors called on Congress Wednesday to provide better Federal aid to state and local governments to not only respond to ransomware attacks, but also to help prevent them. […]
Members of the House Small Business Committee heard expert testimony on Sept. 27 on a range of private sector solutions that the government could use to track down perpetrators of fraud against Small Business Administration (SBA) loan and relief programs during the coronavirus pandemic. […]
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this week Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called for the creation of a legal framework to judge the use of foreign technology in the United States, especially if it originates from adversary nations. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, said today that he and subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace, R-S.C., are working collaboratively to evolve the FITARA Scorecard categories. […]
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee today favorably reported the CURE Act to the House floor by a vote of 30-14. The bill would block prior marijuana use from becoming grounds for failing to hire someone into the Federal government. […]
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee will vote on a bill Wednesday that would block prior marijuana use from becoming grounds for failing to hire someone into the Federal government. […]