Category: Congress

Should the Secret Service lose its cyber fraud mission? One lawmaker thinks so

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New legislation in the House would strip the Secret Service of its mission to investigate financial crimes and cyber fraud in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Rep. Ritchie Torries (D-N.Y.) last week introduced the “Focus on Protection Act.” The bill would transfer investigative jurisdiction over payment and financial systems from the Secret Service to the Treasury Department. In a statement, Torres said the move would allow the Secret Service to focus more on its protection mission. He called the Secret Service’s role in investigating…

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Sexual misconduct at Coast Guard is a fleet-wide problem, congressional probe finds

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Coast Guard’s cultural failings around sexual misconduct are not limited to the service’s academy but extend to the entire service, a congressional probe has found. Nearly a year ago, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subpanel on investigations opened an inquiry into the Coast Guard’s mishandling of sexual assault and harassment cases at its prestigious Coast Guard Academy and the service’s failure to disclose those cases to Congress. The Coast Guard’s own investigation of sexual misconduct, dubbed Operation Fouled Anchor, concluded in 2020, but Congress didn’t learn…

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Lawmakers, DoD to explore portfolio-based acquisition

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When it comes to acquisition, the Defense Department is mostly focused on individual products as they’re defined in the DoD budget. Lawmakers are now asking the DoD to explore portfolio-based management, which could allow the department to invest and field modern technologies a lot faster. In the Defense Department’s science and technology community, for example, investment lines are organized around portfolios of capabilities, such as electromagnetic warfare, communications, or command and control. The approach gives more flexibility to support a wide variety of development efforts.  But on the acquisition side,…

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Hicks presses Congress to increase support for Replicator, RDER

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Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on Wednesday sent a pointed message to Congress at the NDIA emerging technologies conference, saying that congressional trust will “need to substantially expand” when it comes to the department’s innovation programs. “Take Replicator,” Hicks said. “We’ve done nearly 40 Hill briefings since last October, averaging almost one a week.” “On an initiative that represents 0.059 percent of DoD’s budget — that depth of engagement isn’t scalable for Congress across the breadth of what we’re all trying to accomplish.” Replicator, unveiled last August, is Hicks’…

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House VA Committee leader demands ‘airtight case’ for VA IT employees getting pay boost

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A top Republican on the House VA Committee is scrutinizing the number of the employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs who are receiving a pay raise meant for hard-to-keep IT and cyber experts. The VA implemented a Special Salary Rate last summer, giving more than 7,000 employees in its Office of Information Technology (OIT) a substantial boost in pay. The SSR resulted in a 17% average pay increase for VA tech and cyber workers in 2210-classified positions. VA OIT has over 7,500 employees in these positions, and they account…

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After August recess, Congress still has a full agenda

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Congress managed to take care of all the spending bills it needed to before heading out the door for August recess. Lots is still on the agenda, though, for when it returns — including a local matter concerning Reagan International Airport. Plus, there’s been some rare bipartisanship as members share in the one thing they can still always agree on: dressing down a federal official. For more on this, Federal News Network executive producer Eric White spoke to WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller on the Federal Drive with Tom…

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