This Week in Government Tech Media – September 19, 2025 

By Brad Bass /

We saw a lot of reporting from Capitol Hill this week in the government tech media, as well as a sizable amount of coverage of industry events where high-ranking government officials discussed the need for advanced space-based technology. Get caught up on the trending news in my roundup below:

Tech News from the Hill

The tech media world had its eyes on Congress this week, reporting on bills focused on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, Defense contracting and more:

  • Chris Riotta of GovInfoSecurity reported that Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the Sandbox AI Act to allow AI companies to apply for temporary exemptions from federal regulations in order to test new technologies. Covering the news for MeriTalk, Lisbeth Perez highlighted Cruz’s call for a national AI regulatory framework to avoid what he describes as a fragmented and failing system of state-led oversight. Late in the week, Riotta published another piece warning that partisan disagreements over federal spending legislation could result in corporations exiting a program that grants protections to companies that share cyber threat data through the Department of Homeland Security.
  • A bipartisan bill was reintroduced in the House that would call on the National Science Foundation to help make AI more accessible to students – an effort to expand AI and STEM opportunities in higher education, Matt Bracken wrote in FedScoop.
  • Congress is also looking to use AI to improve its own work. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced staffers will get access to Microsoft Copilot’s chatbot, a move that FedScoop’s Miranda Nazarro noted “marks a significant step in the chamber’s push to modernize workflows.”
  • The House is moving to reauthorize two key cybersecurity programs that are set to expire at the end of this month, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act and the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, according to an article by Eric Geller in Cybersecurity Dive. In his coverage, Justin Doubleday of Federal News Network noted that the reauthorization represents a “short-term” extension of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act to give lawmakers more time to work out updates to the 2015 law. The extension buys time for Congress to reconcile the House and Senate approaches to longer-term renewals but signals the unlikelihood of a clean, 10-year extension of the law, according to an analysis by David DiMolfetta in Nextgov/FCW.
  • DiMolfetta also covered concerns by Senate Democrats that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard may have instructed spy agencies to stop disclosing intelligence on foreign adversaries’ attempts to sway U.S. election outcomes through influence operations. Covering the news for MeriTalk, Weslan Hansen quoted the senators’ letter to Gabbard expressing concerns that Gabbard directed the intelligence community to “cease its intelligence reporting on this vital topic.”
  • The latest contentious congressional hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel also touched on cybersecurity, with Democrats expressing concern about potential cuts to the agency’s cyber division that would reduce personnel by half, according to a piece by Tim Starks in CyberScoop.
  • Colin Wood of StateScoop wrote that prominent groups representing state and local governments this week signed a letter asking congressional leaders to reauthorize the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience Act, which includes a key state and local government cybersecurity grants program.
  • In Defense-related legislation news, Anastasia Obis of Federal News Network covered the proposed Transparency in Contract Pricing Act of 2025, requiring contractors to notify the Defense Department if the cost of a product or service increases by more than 25% from the contract bid or from what the government paid for the item in the previous year. Jane Edwards wrote in ExecutiveGov that the bipartisan bill seeks to address price gouging by defense contractors and improve transparency in maintenance contracts.
  • The annual defense policy bill for fiscal 2026 passed by House lawmakers includes a proposal requiring the Pentagon to set up a new Defense Innovation Unit office on the ground in Israel, Brandi Vincent noted in DefenseScoop.

Space Tech Leaders Speak

There were a couple of major industry events this week that featured leaders from the Defense Department and the intelligence community extolling the value of advanced technology in space. Members of the government tech media were there to cover their comments:

  • Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, spoke at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) conference, warning that America’s ability to track threats in space is dangerously outdated for an era where adversaries can launch surprise attacks on U.S. satellites, according to coverage by Sandra Erwin of industry publication Space News. Theresa Hitchens reported from Maui for Breaking Defense that Saltzman called for more collaboration with commercial industry to improve space domain awareness (SDA) and “avoid operational surprise.”
  • Also at the AMOS conference, the director of the Space Force’s Joint Commercial Operations cell said her organization is reorganizing to enable integration of SDA data and analysis from commercial operators into day-to-day military operations, Hitchens reported. 
  • In related comments at AMOS, Space Systems Command head Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant told attendees that the Space Force is setting up new mission-focused acquisition units to speed delivery of satellites, launch services and other space systems to counter China and Russia, Erwin reported. The service recently opened a new acquisition office focused on development of the service’s complex test and training environment, according to a piece by Mikayla Easley this week in DefenseScoop. Greg Hadley covered the story for Air & Space Force Magazine, noting that the tie between acquisition and training has become more important with the service’s push for more advanced training tools.
  • At another industry event this week, the 2025 Intelligence and National Security Summit, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency promoted the adoption of new sensors and AI to give the intelligence community and military targeting, warning and navigation information, according to a report by Kimberly Underwood in SIGNAL Media.

Upcoming Industry Events

If you want to catch some of the news coming from these events firsthand, here are some upcoming ones that you might want to consider:

Those were the stories that bubbled up to the top this week. Come back next week for more. I hope you will subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn or via the form below and tell a friend.