Officials from a slew of private sector contractors – ranging from IT services giant Leidos to the owner of a coffee shop leasing space in a Federal building in Washington – urged members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee to take legislative action to better inoculate contractors against the harsh impacts of any future Federal government shutdown. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee is aiming to hold a hearing on May 21 to examine what its chairman, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., characterizes as the Trump administration’s plan to “dismantle” the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]

A group of 19 House Democrats–many from districts close to Washington–asked leaders of the House Appropriations Committee in a letter dated today to put the brakes on a Trump administration plan to shift government functions currently performed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to the General Services Administration (GSA).  […]

The White House today released an executive order authorizing the promised 1.9 percent pay raise for Federal civilian employees for 2019, including retroactive pay increases to January 1. […]

Forty-eight House members submitted a bipartisan letter to Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and Ranking Member Kay Granger, R-Texas, of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday to include back pay for Federal contractor employees in the upcoming funding legislation. […]

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. […]

The House passed the For the People Act, or H.R. 1, on Friday with a party-line vote of 234-193. […]

U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), today publicly questioned the priority given by Federal agency heads to cybersecurity issues that have long been flagged by GAO on its “High Risk List,” the latest biennial edition of which was issued by the agency today. […]

With the 2020 election cycle on the horizon, Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., reintroduced the Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely (FAST) Voting Act. The legislation, according to the two Congressmen, aims to “enhance voting system security, improve voter participation, and encourage automatic voter registration.” […]

A group of three Democratic representatives from the Capital region sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Tuesday, asking for an update on back pay for Federal workers amid reports of discrepancies. […]

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. […]

While their committee assignment paths have diverged since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January, Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., pledged Wednesday night to continue their close working relationship on Federal IT issues both on the policy and funding sides of the equation. […]

At MeriTalk’s FITARA Awards ceremony on Wednesday night, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee, offered his views on what Congress needs to tackle next in Federal IT, and previewed three likely pieces of legislation. […]

MeriTalk has announced the winners of its FITARA Awards for the seventh iteration of the FITARA Scorecard released in December, recognizing seven agencies for their progress in IT modernization. […]

The House voted today to approve a 2.6 percent pay increase for civilian Federal employees. The legislation sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., cleared the House on a vote of 259-161, with all 230 House Democrats being joined by 29 Republicans voting for the measure. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced the leadership and membership of its subcommittees on Tuesday, with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., as chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, which will handle Federal IT oversight duties. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., will service as the subcommittee’s ranking member. […]

MeriTalk today announced the launch of its FITARA Dashboard, a publicly-viewable resource that brings the latest congressional scoring of Federal agency information technology modernization progress into clearer focus, and provides analytical tools to perform detailed comparisons of how 24 major Federal agencies have achieved progress toward their goals over the past three years. […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Steny Hoyer, D-Md., introduced the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act of 2019. The legislation, introduced today, would bring this year’s pay increase for civilian Federal employees in line with the raise given to members of the military. Currently, under President Trump’s pay freeze, civilian employees will see no pay raise, while members of the military received a 2.6 pay increase for the 2018 calendar year. […]

Federal IT oversight will be the domain of the Subcommittee on Government Operations in the House Committee Oversight and Reform, and there will be no IT Subcommittee this session of Congress, said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, during an interview on Tuesday’s episode of Government Matters TV. […]

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. […]

Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., announced today that she will serve on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. […]

As Congressional members celebrate and lament the results of yesterday’s midterm elections, Federal IT leaders face a changed landscape on Capitol Hill, with a new party in charge of the House and close elections for several members key to initiatives like FITARA, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), and IT modernization. Here are some of the key races and their results: […]

In recent comments regarding the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), Rep. Will Hurd, R-Tex., said that he is “pretty sure that we have resolved the issue with TMF,” and expects Congress to include the full $150 million in an upcoming minibus funding bill. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today that he introduced legislation – the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Reform Act – which would codify the FedRAMP program in Federal law and address what the congressman said are shortcomings of the program, including the slow pace of implementing standardized practices and realizing efficiencies in the certification process. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s information technology and government operations subcommittees held a joint hearing Wednesday to key in on the most salient, persistent, and omnipresent issue in Federal agency IT: cybersecurity. On hand to testify were Federal CIO Suzette Kent, and Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, seeking to illuminate congressional inquirers on Federal agency progress to mitigate the wide range of cyber risks. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) on Tuesday approved two bills that would put procedures in place to swiftly terminate underperforming Federal employees, adding legislative fuel to the fire burning over Federal workforce rights further stoked by President Trump’s recent executive orders. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) on Tuesday approved by voice vote a bill which would allow Federal agency heads to limit access to certain websites or deploy cybersecurity measures if they feel that it is necessary to secure their IT systems, but not before strong vocal dissent about the scope of the legislation. […]

Two lawmakers and a government leader central to Federal agency IT modernization efforts said Wednesday that the means to improve substandard FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) scorecard grades are readily available and simple to achieve for many government agencies. […]

When the first Federal IT Acquisitions Reform Act (FITARA) scorecards were dished out in November 2015, agencies and industry alike praised government’s glowing commitment to overhauling a moribund Federal IT landscape. Looking back over the scorecards, FITARA has clearly added new transparency and accountability–and the scorecard has evolved over time. But, the FITARA 5.0 reports in late 2017 showed agencies are regressing. With the passage of the MGT Act, now seems like a good time to further evolve the FITARA scorecard. […]