FCW Insider: Feb. 19
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
Lawmakers press OPM, CDC for vaccine allocations for federal employees
A group of Capital region Democrats want the Office of Personnel Management and the Centers for Disease Control to make the inoculation of federal employees a federal process.
CISA eyes changes to combat future supply chain hacks
The acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency today said his agency is looking various changes to protect federal networks in the wake of the massive breach discovered late last year.
Pentagon plans for spectrum policy changes, modernizing IT tools
DOD Deputy CIO Frederick Moorefield says "static" policy remains spectrum's "biggest hurdle" -- something he hopes to change in 2021.
Quick Hits
*** The General Services Administration announced on Thursday that it was rolling out identify proofing via its Login.gov shared services program to "a limited number" of federally financed state and local government programs. GSA's Technology Transformation Services :will limit engagements with state and local entities to work that is linked to federal programs in which TTS is uniquely positioned to provide assistance" and will "partner with applicable federal agencies to ensure proper coordination."
*** Benjamin Hovland, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told lawmakers at a Feb. 16 hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee that he hadn't seen any evidence that "the election or any tallies" were impacted by the ongoing supply chain breach that centered around IT management applications from SolarWinds. Hovland made his remarks in response to questions from Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah).
"Again some of the things that were in place this year that were crucially important to that confidence was you had about 95% of Americans vote on a paper ballot or a paper audit trail," Hovland said. "Obviously, in a number of the close states, we saw exhaustive audits and recounts, hand inspection in Georgia that reconfirmed the machine tallies, and all of that was very important to having confidence in the elections.