This Week in Government Tech Media – August 24, 2026

By Brad Bass /

We saw lots of breaking news reported by government tech media outlets last week, but a couple of interesting trends caught my attention. I noted that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was appearing in headlines across several fronts, and I pulled those items together below. A similar trend was evident related to healthcare tech. Find links to those articles in my roundup below as well:

A Hodgepodge of CISA Coverage

Despite congressional concerns about CISA’s ability to conduct its mission in light of cuts to the agency’s staff and program portfolio, there were varied news reports about a number of actions taken by the agency over the past week. Check out the reporting below:

  • House Democrats asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine how significant staffing and programmatic cuts at CISA have affected the agency’s ability to carry out its mission, according to coverage by Lisbeth Perez for MeriTalk.
  • Rep. James Walkinshaw and other Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee asked for the review in an August 20 letter to the GAO, Sara Friedman reported in Inside Cybersecurity.
  • Lawmakers noted that CISA has lost nearly a third of its workforce “at precisely the moment when our adversaries are accelerating attacks against critical infrastructure,” leaving Congress without a clear picture of which capabilities were lost, David DiMolfetta wrote in Nextgov/FCW.
  • In other CISA news, Jaden Beard of Inside Cybersecurity noted that the agency is focusing on improving usability for Software Bill of Materials following a major update to a 2021 minimum elements guide, quoting an agency official who said they are “trying to make sure people know what software is in their software.”  
  • Chris Riotta of GovInfoSecurity reported on CISA’s plans to outsource its cybersecurity software acquisition operations, asking for industry support for more than 500 procurements a year in transactions that would add up to $6 billion over a decade, starting in September 2027. 
  • CISA also issued guidance last week to help agencies prioritize cybersecurity data logging capabilities that support continuous event monitoring, threat hunting, incident response and forensics, according to a brief by Michele Sandiford for Federal News Network.
  • In a separate development, CISA joined the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency in issuing a warning last week that hackers are using AI to target water, food, energy, chemical, manufacturing and commercial facilities by taking aim at programmable logic controllers (PLCs), Tim Starks noted in CyberScoop.

Healthcare in the News

A variety of healthcare-related stories popped up this week across the government tech media – focused mainly on AI and electronic health records (EHR). Here’s a quick look at each of those articles:

  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking public feedback on clinical risks and other considerations for regulating generative AI-enabled medical devices, as reported in a piece by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee in HealthcareInfoSecurity.
  • Christian Robles wrote in Nextgov/FCW that the FDA wants the public to weigh in on whether chatbots should pass “competency-based” tests — similar to exams doctors must take — before they are marketed as medical devices.
  • The FDA notice outlines a two-axis framework that could be used to assess risk associated with GenAI-enabled medical devices, Jane Edwards noted in ExecutiveGov. 
  • Robles also reported on a related story in which the Social Security Administration is looking to speed up disability claims adjudication by allowing Americans to consent to their medical providers sending the agency digital copies of their health records through a data sharing superhighway. 
  • At the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the ceiling value of a massive contract to overhaul how the department tracks health information will increase almost $10 billion to nearly $27 billion due to “unanticipated complexities,” K. Sophie Will reported in FedScoop. 
  • In her coverage of that announcement, MeriTalk’s Grace Dille quoted the VA’s statement that said “the expanded scope is necessary to ensure continued [Electronic Health Records Modernization] deployment activities and associated support services until all VA Medical Centers and associated facilities have fully transitioned to the EHR system.” 
  • In a sign of progress, the VA also last week began deploying its new electronic health record system to three facilities in Indiana, deploying AI tools to help clinicians and other employees use the system more efficiently, an announcement covered by Henry Kenyon of GovCIO Media.

Upcoming Industry Events

Perhaps it’s a sign that summer is ending, but the number of industry events for this week increased markedly. See our list of some of those below:

If you would like your event included in this list, please fill out this form.

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