FCW Insider: Jan. 22

Biden charts governmentwide 'equity agenda'

The OMB director and the head of the Domestic Policy Council will play key roles in implementing the objectives of a new executive order, which eliminates a Trump-era purge of diversity training materials and include the creation of a new data working group .

SASC gavel set to change hands

With Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) as the new chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrats will set the tone on defense policy and budgets.

Evanina resigns as counterintelligence chief

William Evanina, a career intelligence official, is stepping down from the post of director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

Connolly once again offers pay hike legislation

If passed, the bill would give feds a raise of an average 3.2%.

Quick Hits

*** President Joe Biden elevated two Democrats to lead two regulatory agencies. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was appointed as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was designated as acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Each agency has five commissioners when fully staffed; three from the president's party and two from the party out of power.

*** Biden also issued a mandate for passengers on public modes of transportation to wear masks to protect against transmission of COVID-19. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, praised the move for the impact it will have on employees in the transportation industry, including Transportation Security Administration workers.

"This will not only protect travelers and reduce the spread of COVID-19, but will also help protect the frontline workers, like TSA's Transportation Security Officers, who have been tirelessly working this past year, despite the dangers," Thompson said in a statement. "We must never forget that 13 TSA employees have died due to COVID."

*** Biden is seeking a "full assessment of the SolarWinds cyber breach" from the intelligence community, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed at her Jan. 21 briefing.