A bipartisan, bicameral group of 45 lawmakers led by Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is calling on congressional leadership to extend Medicare coverage of telehealth services in February. […]

Democrats in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would give Federal employees an average 5.1 percent pay raise in 2023. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, in the House, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced the companion bill in the Senate. […]

A bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021, which would expand coverage of telehealth services through Medicare and make permanent COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act on Jan. 21, to give Federal employees a 3.2 percent pay raise for 2022. […]

Fifteen Democratic Senators penned a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on August 20, pushing Chairman Ajit Pai to increase funding for and improve transparency about rural healthcare operations. […]

A group of six Democratic senators led by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced legislation on July 29 to establish labor task forces that would provide Federal workers with an outlet to express needs for personal protective equipment (PPE) and establish health precautions for returning to the workplace. […]

Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is calling for any changes made to accommodate telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic to be made permanent following new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrating the expanding use of telehealth services to avoid the virus. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill Jan. 28 to give Federal employees a 3.5 percent pay raise in 2021. […]

A bill reintroduced in the Senate Oct. 24 aims to increase the reach of emergency alert communications on national and state levels by preventing some alert opt-outs on mobile phones, requiring that alerts issued by the White House or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) be run repeatedly by television and radio stations, and exploring how to create a system to offer emergency alerts on audio and video online streaming services. […]

Senators John Thune, R-S.D., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, reintroduced the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act, which would set requirements for cities during the approval process of installing infrastructure for 5G. […]

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, announced on May 20 that Eric Einhorn will serve as his new Chief of Staff. […]

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved three pieces of legislation via voice vote during today’s executive session. […]

A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Government Act on Wednesday to improve the use of AI across the Federal government by “providing access to technical expertise and streamlining hiring within the agencies.” The bill was previously introduced by the same group of senators in September of 2018, but didn’t receive a vote in the Senate. […]

The White House’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020, released on Monday, does not appear to include a pay raise for Federal civilian employees but does propose a 3.1 percent annual pay increase for members of the military. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced legislation on Thursday that would give Federal government civilian employees a 3.6 percent pay raise in 2020. […]

Several senators took a skeptical view today over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) Electronic Health Records Modernization effort (EHRM), raising questions on the need for better IT infrastructure, scheduling systems, and leadership structure. […]

Democrats in both the House and the Senate have introduced a bill to prohibit landlords and creditors from taking action against employees at Federal agencies impacted by the partial government shutdown. […]

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Ala., the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, is pushing for a hearing on 5G wireless deployment and said the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act could be a good jumping off point for the hearing, according to a Politico report. […]

On Thursday, President Trump signed the Forever GI Bill Housing Payment Fulfillment Act into law, speeding up IT modernization efforts at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). […]

Asad Ramzanali is now a senior technology policy adviser to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Previously, Ramzanali served as a legislative fellow specializing in banking and technology policy for Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. […]

On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act as part of the larger Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2017. […]

A New York Times report on Tuesday night revealed new details on Facebook’s partnerships with service providers, showing a high level of access to user data for other companies, spurred new calls for data privacy legislation. […]

On Monday, the Senate unanimously passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act. The READI Act will “ensure more people receive relevant emergency alerts on their mobile phones, televisions, and radios, explore new ways of alerting the public through online video and audio streaming services, track and study false alerts when they occur, and improve the way states plan for emergency alerts,” according to a press release from the bill’s sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. The bipartisan legislation was also championed by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. […]

A group of 15 Democratic senators introduced a new piece of data privacy legislation on Wednesday. The legislation, named the Data Care Act, will, according to the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, “require websites, apps, and other online providers to take responsible steps to safeguard personal information and stop the misuse of users’ data.” […]

Congress is getting behind the push to develop artificial intelligence technologies and policies with recent calls for research and development that may overlap efforts already underway. It also reflects the kind of “whole of country” approach that some leaders have said is necessary to keep up with the Chinese. […]

A group of 24 technology organizations banded together to urge the Senate to pass S. 3157, the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act. In a letter released today, the group said the legislation “will modernize wireless infrastructure regulations for next-generation 5G wireless networks” and will unlock “significant consumer and economic benefits.” […]

With artificial intelligence (AI) the topic du jour on Capitol Hill, Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Cory Gardner, R-Colo.; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Wednesday introduced the Artificial Intelligence in Government Act that would establish a Federal AI advisory board that aims to chart paths forward in the technology’s development. […]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai today defended his year-long public insistence that the FCC was the victim of a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack which impacted its electronic comment filing system during the agency’s net neutrality rulemaking proceeding last year, but admitted to having his own doubts about the cause of the system problem. […]

The NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Act, S. 770, is heading to President Trump’s desk where he is expected to sign it into law soon. […]

Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, on June 28 introduced S. 3157, the Streamlining the Rapid Evolution and Modernization of Leading-edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance Small Cell Deployment Act (STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act), to mixed reviews from industry groups. […]