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. […]

Switching to telework for half of the workweek after the pandemic ends would save Federal employees up to $4,000 each year and the Federal government up to $11 billion annually, per a Global Workplace Analytics calculation discussed at the July 29 Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing on remote work. […]

Six Senate Democrats urged leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to include a $1 billion Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) funding boost in the HEALS Act pandemic relief legislation introduced earlier this week. […]

The Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021 today in an 86-14 vote, following a White House threat to veto the legislation. […]

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. […]

Democratic senators from Maryland and Virginia penned a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Michael Rigas urging them to clarify Federal agency reopening plans to continue maximum telework, and arguing that it’s “unsafe” to bring employees back to the office. […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has delivered two congressionally-requested reports on the agency’s consumer privacy work as part of the fiscal year 2020 spending bill that funds FTC and other agencies. The first report details the way FTC uses its authorities to protect consumer privacy and security and to “deter unfair and deceptive conduct.” The […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working on a program inventory to catalog its project spending, starting with documentation of CARES Act funding, Acting Director Russell Vought confirmed at a June 3 Senate Budget Committee hearing on his nomination to become permanent director of OMB. […]

More than 30 senators from both parties penned a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., requesting $26 billion in funding for researchers in the next COVID-19 coronavirus stimulus package. […]

Several members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs are criticizing the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for its lack of Senate briefings on the Federal workforce during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. asked House and Senate leaders to include in the next Federal coronavirus relief bill a lengthy list of protections for the Federal and government contractor workforces, including measures to further promote telework.  […]

Here’s an overview of some of the latest developments on the government and tech fronts due to COVID-19. […]

The $2 trillion COVID-19 coronavirus relief legislation, passed by the Senate late Wednesday night, includes far reaching Federal agency investments [link to Jordan’s story] to ramp up the government’s response to the pandemic, including funds for IT and telework infrastructure. The Senate legislation still requires approval by the House of Representatives, and President Trump’s signature. […]

The $2 trillion measure approved by the Senate last night to help stimulate the flagging U.S. economy and respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will provide hefty increases to the budgets of numerous Federal agencies with major roles in pandemic response and mitigation. […]

A House version of COVID-19 relief legislation being prepared as an alternative to the separate relief/stimulus bill being considered by the Senate on March 24 features a stunning proposed increase in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) that serves as a repayable source of capital for Federal agency IT modernization projects. […]

A group of eight senators including all four from Virginia and Maryland asked the Trump administration in a March 19 letter to direct Federal departments and agencies to make publicly available their continuity of operations plans (COOP) in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]

In a letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Dale Cabaniss, Democratic senators urged the agency to improve its plan to protect Federal employees from income insecurity and disciplinary action as they work to comply with COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, safeguards. […]

A bill introduced in the Senate this week aims to steer tens of billions of new funding toward civilian Federal government research and development efforts involving “industries of the future” including artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS). […]

The Senate on Dec. 19 voted to confirm the nominations of Dana Deasy as Defense Department CIO, and Lisa Hershman as DoD’s chief management officer, following up on a confirmation hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Oct. 29. […]

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., have introduced new legislation to aid workers who lose their jobs to automation. […]

The Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes multiple provisions in the bill’s report that push the Department of Defense (DoD) to make greater investments in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). […]

The Senate last week confirmed Thomas McCaffery as Assistant Secretary of Defense for health affairs. […]

The Senate, in a 67-28 vote today, passed a budget deal that raises Federal spending $320 billion over current levels and lifts the debt ceiling for two years, averting a shutdown. The Senate budget, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called “a strong deal,” is a companion to the House’s budget, which emerged from […]

By a vote of 86-8, the Senate voted to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1790) which includes funding to accelerate artificial intelligence solutions within the Defense Innovation Unit, enhancing cybersecurity, and cloud capabilities. […]

Senate Democrats took steps to tackle election security this week, first by looking to investigate voting machines, and then by unanimously signing off on a Senate version of the House’s H.R. 1, the “For the People Act” yesterday. […]

Senate Democrats are circulating among their offices text of a letter they may send to senior Federal cybersecurity leaders questioning the impact of the partial Federal government shutdown on the security of government networks, MeriTalk has learned. […]

he Federal government was poised for a partial shutdown beginning at midnight tonight despite House and Senate action aimed at avoiding that. […]

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. […]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on Thursday the Democratic committee assignments for the new congress. […]

The Senate today approved H.R. 6157, a minibus funding bill which provides full-year FY 2019 funding to the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor, and provides a continuing resolution for short term funding for the entire Federal government until December. […]