FCW Insider: May 21, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
CDC mask guidelines and the federal workforce
The White House-led Safer Federal Workforce Task Force is incorporating recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates on COVID protocols into their guidance for agencies looking to accommodate vaccinated workers.
Industry coalition asks appropriators to boost CISA funding
CISA received $650 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, but the agency's top officials have described that as only a "down payment" to move the government's cybersecurity efforts.
ICYMI: Few agencies sought Schedule F conversions
In the waning days of the Trump administration, only a relative handful out of hundreds of eligible agencies and department responded to an executive order that looked to reclassify vast swathes of the federal civil service as at-will employees.
Quick Hits
*** Paul Cunningham, the chief information security officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, told lawmakers on Thursday that compromised SolarWinds' patches delivered malware to agency networks but said that so there are no indications that "would suggest successful exploitation of the vulnerability. Cunningham testified at a hearing on VA cybersecurity held by the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
*** The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the nomination of Eric S. Lander to serve as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy by a voice vote on Thursday. Lander's nomination proceeds to the full Senate.
*** The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing with Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount on June 9 to discuss the ransomware attack against his company. Some lawmakers are not happy with Blount's defense of paying the ransom. "Paying cyber criminals $4.4 million, while freezing out" law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies is not "good for the country," Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) tweeted.
*** A group of leading House Democrats asked the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to examine whether expanding employee benefits to include first-time homebuyer assistance, eligibility for loan forgiveness programs would improvement competitiveness and retention. The May 20 letter comes from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the committee on House Administration.