Democratic lawmakers in the Senate and House have reintroduced legislation that aims to bring renewed transparency and oversight to software, algorithms, and other automated systems used to make critical decisions that impact nearly every aspect of American life, and to guard against bias in the creation and use of those technologies. […]
The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Feb. 2 to approve the Supply Chain Security Training Act. The committee’s approval of the bill sends it to the full House of Representatives for consideration. […]
Once upon a time – before the tenures of most of its members began – Congress had inside help in understanding tech-related issues before members were asked to vote on legislation that could prove crucial to their further development. […]
Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation last week to protect commercial satellites from cybersecurity threats. […]
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology favorably reported several bills to the full House today, including H.R. 847—the Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act. […]
The Senate voted on Dec. 18 to approve the Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act, legislation that aims to improve the Federal workforce’s understanding of AI and ensure its ethical and safe use. […]
Despite a proclamation over the weekend from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., that he was a “no” on the existing version of Build Back Better Act legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a Dear Colleague letter today that he plans to keep working on the reconciliation legislation until they “get something done.” […]
Despite concerted efforts to get Democrats’ $1.75 trillion-plus Build Back Better Act passed before the end of the month, the timeline for Senate consideration of the budget reconciliation bill is effectively sliding into 2022. […]
The Senate passed the conferenced version of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today, sending the $768 billion defense spending bill to President Biden’s desk for his signature. The annual defense spending bill has now been passed 61 years in a row. […]
The Senate on Dec. 14 voted to invoke cloture on the conferenced version of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), setting up a final vote on Wednesday for the $768 billion defense spending bill. […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported the Open Courts Act of 2021 (S. 2614) to the full Senate floor with bipartisan support for the legislation. […]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expects to have a final conference agreement for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, with votes potentially taking place into the weekend, Schumer wrote in a Dec. 6 Dear Colleague letter. […]
Legislation designed to strengthen the Office of Personnel Management Act has cleared the House Oversight and Reform Committee, despite multiple Republicans objecting to the bill. […]
Since the release of the Cloud First mandate in 2011, the Federal government has been pushing agencies to modernize legacy technology and migrate to the cloud. While Cloud First evolved into Cloud Smart, agencies have historically taken a measured approach to cloud migration. On the most recent FITARA scorecard, only three agencies scored an A in the Modernizing Government Technology category. Eleven agencies scored a C or below. […]
The Federal government avoided a costly shutdown, after the House and Senate both passed a continuing resolution Dec. 2 to keep the government funded until Feb. 18, 2022. President Biden signed the CR today, the White House announced. […]
Leaders in the House and Senate said on Thursday they have reached an agreement for a new continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the Federal government funded through mid-February 2022. Under the existing CR, the government is set to run out of funding before midnight Dec. 3. […]
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. […]
After returning from the Thanksgiving break yesterday, the Senate’s progress on consideration of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) stalled last night with Senate Republicans refusing to vote for cloture due to disagreements on the amendment process for the defense spending act. […]
The Senate returned to work Monday afternoon to continue consideration of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), beginning a torrid stretch of legislative work leading up to the end of the calendar year. […]
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. […]
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has introduced an amendment (SA. 4281) to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would fundamentally transform the Federal government’s approach to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) – more commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). […]
Despite the previous wish to pass the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) before going on Thanksgiving break, the Senate has adjourned until Nov. 29, when it will again take up the defense spending bill, according to a Senate source. […]
The House of Representatives is expected to hold votes on its fiscal year (FY) 2022 reconciliation package – known as the Build Back Better Act (BBB) – as well as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) – today after the House Rules Committee finalized a rule for debate on the now $1.75 trillion “soft” infrastructure legislation late on Nov. 4. […]
President Biden signed H.R. 5763 into law on Oct. 31, extending authorization for the Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Programs until Dec. 3 – and effectively providing more time for Congress to consider two big pending infrastructure bills that contain billions of dollars of tech and cyber-related items. […]
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Thune, R-S.D., have introduced a bill to create a new council that would oversee Federal investments and policy development of next-generation communications technology including sixth-generation – or 6G – wireless tech. […]
The House of Representatives on October 20 passed the bipartisan Secure Equipment Act, which would prevent equipment manufactured by Chinese state-backed firms such as Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua from being further utilized and marketed in the United States. […]
On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 into law to provide school districts with resources to combat and protect themselves against cyberattacks. […]
Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House last week to boost U.S. supply chains and foster domestic manufacturing of “critical goods” by creating a Supply Chain Resiliency and Crisis Response Office in the Department of Commerce. […]
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bipartisan bill this week that would prevent law enforcement agencies from searching phones, laptops, and other digital devices of those crossing United States borders. […]
Senators Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced bipartisan legislation that would mandate the Department of Treasury and other Federal entities to review the use and mining of cryptocurrencies globally, and submit a detailed report on the issue to multiple congressional committees. […]