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.
FCC IG Finds No 2017 Cyberattack; Commissioners Trade Jabs
A long-awaited report from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Inspector General (IG) found that the agency was not the victim of distributed-denial-of-service cyberattacks during the public comment period for its net neutrality rulemaking proceeding last year, rather the report found that the FCC’s electronic comment filing system was overwhelmed by a flood of people trying to file comments in the proceeding. As the FCC IG released its report today, FCC Commissioners traded sharp jabs over the matter, with Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic appointee, saying it was “unfortunate that this agency’s energy and resources needed to be spent debunking this implausible claim.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who had as leader of the agency backed up the veracity of the cyberattack claim, today laid blame at the feet of the agency’s former chief information officer, for providing “inaccurate information” to him. Pai also said the IG report debunked “the conspiracy theory that my office or I had any knowledge that the information provided by the former CIO was inaccurate and was allowing that inaccurate information to be disseminated for political purposes.”
David Vargas Joining GSA
David Vargas, who is currently the director of the HR Line of Business for the Office of Personnel Management OPM), is joining the General Services Administration (GSA), according to reports from Federal News Radio. Vargas will switch agencies as part of GSA absorbing OPM’s HR Solutions shop. Federal News Radio obtained an email that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy sent to GSA staff announcing the hire. “In his new role at GSA, David will oversee the launch of our new Service Management Office, which is being established to support our vision of expanding our mission support service offerings to other federal agencies,” Murphy said in the email.