Welcome to “This Week in Government Tech Media,” a weekly blog in which we take a quick look at the stories generating the most buzz among media covering the government IT space. This week’s media coverage reports on a deluge of tech-related activity on the Hill, as well as new developments at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Focus on Legislation
This week saw reporting on congressional action around legislation focused on cybersecurity, AI and other tech-related issues. On the cybersecurity front, Matt Bracken of CyberScoop provided a handy roundup of activity by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) approving legislation aimed at unscrambling cybersecurity regulations, strengthening health system protections and bolstering the federal cyber workforce. David DiMolfetta of Nextgov/FCW reported that the same committee signed off on the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act to address “overlapping cyber laws that CISOs say have caused compliance headaches.”
Bracken also noted this week that the Senate introduced new legislation that would give expanded investigative power to the U.S. Secret Service to take on cybercrime tied to digital assets. In yet another Senate cybersecurity-related article, he reported on the proposed Cyber Ready Workforce Act, which “calls on the Department of Labor to award competitive grants that support the creation, implementation and expansion of registered apprenticeship programs in the cybersecurity field.”
With regard to AI, MeriTalk’s Grace Dille wrote about the introduction in the House of the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023 (CREATE AI Act) to establish the National AI Research Resource, “a cloud computing resource to help democratize the development and use of AI.” Also at MeriTalk, John Curran reported that the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted on Wednesday to approve the bipartisan Future of AI Innovation Act that would provide congressional authorization for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI). The AISI resides within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with a focus on AI safety.
MeriTalk’s Lisbeth Perez informed readers that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY2025 Defense Appropriations Bill, which includes provisions funding critical technologies such as AI and quantum computing.
In other legislative news, Adam Mazmanian of Nextgov/FCW shared the news on the HSGAC’s passage of The Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Reform Act that would reauthorize the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) through 2030. The TMF was created in 2017 to provide money to Federal civilian agencies to undertake tech modernization projects. Cate Burgan of MeriTalk also covered the development.
CISA
Nextgov/FCW and MeriTalk were among the news outlets noting the appointment of Lisa Einstein as CISA’s first chief artificial intelligence officer. In this position, Einstein will focus on how the agency can use AI and machine learning capabilities responsibly in the context of critical infrastructure.
In other CISA news, the agency is planning to use “an automated mechanism to help it better process and review a coming deluge of new cyber incident reports,” according to Edward Graham of Nextgov/FCW. Dille also covered this issue for MeriTalk.
Elsewhere in critical infrastructure news, DiMolfetta noted that the Center for Federal Civilian Executive Branch Resilience, a leading critical infrastructure cybersecurity institute, was just formed to focus on defending federal civilian agencies following a slew of recent cyberattacks on the sector.
That’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted on media coverage on these and other topics as things develop.