By Justin Katz
More than a dozen lawmakers from both parties on a key House committee are seeking information from multiple cabinet secretaries and agency chiefs that the breach involving SolarWinds Orion has had on their respective organizations.
The letters sent on Wednesday by the House committee on energy and commerce were sent to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Health and Human Services Acting Secretary Norris Cochran and Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Evelyn Remaley.
The lawmakers questions include whether agencies have been compromised as well as the scope and scale of the breach, actions taken so far to investigate and respond to any compromises and a schedule to mitigate risks.
By Natalie Alms
The National Academy of Public Administration s congressionally mandated report on Office of Personnel Management concludes that the federal human resources agency should remain independent.
The report was ordered in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act at the behest of House Democrats who had thwarted the Trump administration s plan to merge OPM into the General Service Administration and wanted a top-down look at the functioning of the agency. OPM as we know it today really needs to rebuild staff capacity, encourage innovation and adopt a more data-driven, accountable and forward looking human capital management approach, NAPA president and CEO Terry Gerton said on a Wednesday call with reporters.
By Natalie Alms
Within 24 hours of receiving its most substantial boost yet, the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) awarded the Department of Labor $9.6 million to modernize its enterprise data infrastructure on Friday.
The announcement of the 11
th ever TMF project came the day after the fund received a $1 billion funding boost from the American Rescue Plan. That s a dramatic expansion for the fund, which has been getting appropriations of around $25 million. The news of the Technology Modernization Fund getting a $1 billion boost from the American Rescue plan couldn t have come at a better time said David Shive, GSA Chief Information Officer and TMF Board member, in a General Services Administration announcement about the decision.
Quick Hits
Deb Haaland, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, to lead the
Department of the Interior by a vote of 51 to 40 on Monday. Haaland becomes the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. The Interior Department employs more than 60,000 people and spends $1.4 billion on IT annually.
Stefanie Tompkins was sworn in on Monday as the 23rd director of the
Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency. Tompkins is returning to DARPA after a stint as vice president for research and technology transfer at Colorado School of Mines. Previously, Tompkins has been DARPA s acting director, chief of staff and director of the Defense Sciences Office.