FCW Insider: March 19, 2021

Senators press for federal agency accountability over SolarWinds

Three top cybersecurity officials struggled to answer questions from lawmakers about who is to blame for the government's failure to stop the breach of nine federal agencies.

Agency STEM workforces in decline, report finds

A new committee report details the dramatic decline in the STEM workforces of federal science agencies. Lawmakers talked ideas to rebuild the workforce at a hearing on Wednesday.

18F to help Wisconsin with UI tech

Many states have buckled under the pressure of delivering benefits to surges of claimants during the pandemic using antiquated technology. 18F is set to help Wisconsin modernize their unemployment insurance technology using agile procurement.

Automating the Plum Book and other Sunshine Week bills

Among the current crop of "Sunshine Week" bills are measures to continually update the Plum Book of federal appointments and to require the president to establish records management controls to store electronic messages in a way that they can later be searched and retrieved.

House panel advances industrial control systems bill

New legislation puts the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the center of federal response to threats to computerized industrial systems.

Quick Hits

*** Xavier Becerra, formerly a U.S. Representative from California and his state's attorney general, was confirmed on a 50-49 vote to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican vote for Becerra. The sprawling agency is a key part of the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. HHS employs more than 76,000 federal workers and spends $6.6 billion annually on IT.

*** The Senate confirmed Ambassador William Burns to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday on a voice vote. Burns said the widespread hack linked to flaws in SolarWinds software was a "very harsh wake-up call…for all of us about vulnerability of supply chains and critical infrastructure in both the private sector and the public sector in this country" during his confirmation hearing in February.

*** Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced three new research programs from the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) designed to help protect the energy grid. Programs focus on supply chain analytics, workforce development and protecting against electromagnetic pulse attacks and geomagnetic interference events.