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This Week: Cyber In The Senate, E-Rate at the FCC and Beyond, Napolitano's move and more...

By Mitch Herckis posted Jul 16,2013 04:02 PM

  

Friday marked the 150th day since President Obama signed EO-13636 and PPD-21, at which point DHS must report to the President on the identification of key critical infrastructure at risk.  As we're only now seeing bits and pieces of the 120 day deliverables, expect some time before we see anything regarding this deliverable.  That said, we always take insider information at swenger@amrms.com and mherckis@amrms.com.  On to the real news...

Key Takeaway:
Bipartisan Senate Cybersecurity Draft:  Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee Chair Rockefeller (D-WV) and Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD) began circulating a bipartisan cybersecurity bill.  While some press accounts referred to it as ‘boring,’ that is a good thing for its prospects for passage.  It is a bare-bones bill that focuses on writing into law ongoing cybersecurity standard development headed by NIST, as well as bolstering cyber workforce development, education, research and development, and public awareness activities.  While it does preempt state cybersecurity regulations of private businesses, it also provides significant avenues for input and collaboration with state and local government.  Expect a separate Senate bill focusing on FISMA and information sharing activities.


Other Buzz:
DHS Secretary Napolitano To Resign:  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be leaving the agency in September for a new gig as head of the University of California system.  As someone who steadily focused the agency on cybersecurity and the intergovernmental relationship, state CIOs have a vested interest in who's next.


E-Rate, Universal Service Fund Spotlight: The FCC meets this Friday, and will release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) outlining reforms to the E-Rate system based on the White House and FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel’s calls to provide 100 Mbps speeds to schools by 2015, and 1 gig by the end of the decade.  Not to be left out, the Senate will hold a hearing on the matter Wednesday, and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) warned against the program’s unchecked growth in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Clyburn, urging her to cap the fund at the current level.


Techbytes:

FirstNet issues RFIs for Radio Network and Core


Agencies lack incentives to save money through strategic sourcing, GAO says

President’s E-Government Charge Modeled by State Government


DISA Plans to Run $427 Million Hybrid Cloud Data Storage Service

New Resource for Federal Agencies: Mobile Code Sharing Catalog


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