The Hill reports House Republicans yesterday tried to attach language to a jobs bill that would have fired feds caught watching or distributing pornography on their work computers. But when dozens of Democrats started voting for the Republicans’ “motion to recommit” — a parliamentary procedure that gives the minority one last chance to amend legislation — and the provision passed, Democratic leaders pulled the bill. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who wrote the bill, was outraged at the Republican’s move: For anyone that is concerned about federal employees watching pornography, they just saw a pornographic movie. It’s called, “Motion to Recommit.”…
Browsing: Congress
The House passed a bill Wednesday banning the installation and use of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software on all federal computers, systems and networks. Peer-to-peer programs such as BitTorrent, Lime Wire and KazaA pose security risks for the federal government. Rep. Edophus Towns, D-N.Y., introduced HR 4098 after several publicized information breaches involving peer-to-peer programs last year. In one case, confidential House Ethics Committee investigation documents were posted online after a staffer loaded the documents onto her personal computer which had peer-to-peer sharing software installed. Towns praised the House’s 408-13 vote in a statement. While I understand that peer-to-peer file…
The Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee voted today to send a key cybersecurity bill to the Senate floor. The bill, S 773,would require the executive branch to work with the private sector to create cybersecurity standards and mandate audits to ensure compliance with those new standards. An earlier version of the bill would have granted the president authority to shut down the Internet in the case of a major cyber attack, but this new bill doesn’t include that authority. Instead, the government and the private sector would work together to address handling a major cybersecurity attack. Sens. Jay Rockefeller,…
It’s no April Fool’s Joke — Homeland Security Department’s undersecretary for management, Elaine Duke, will celebrate her last day at the agency April 1. Duke told the Federal Times that she has plenty of hobbies and interests to explore after devoting much of the past decade to DHS. She has served as undersecretary of management since August 2008 and has worked for the federal government for 28 years, much of it in contracting. I started with TSA in 2002, and work has really driven my time and energy. I’m looking forward to doing some discretionary things now.” Duke said she…
President Barack Obama signed a 3.4 percent pay raise for service members into law Monday, making 2010 one of a handful of recent years where civil servants and members of the military won’t receive the same raises. A spending omnibus signed recently by Obama gives federal employees a 2 percent raise. Obama said earlier this year that the economy made giving civilian employees the same raises as the military prohibitive. Unions have pledged to return pay parity in 2011. The military raise was included in the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill, HR 3326.
Sen. John McCain doesn’t know why the fiscally-strapped United States Postal Service sent him a folio of 2009 commemorative stamps, but he thinks the expenditure is “irresponsible.” In a Dec. 16 letter to USPS Postmaster General John Potter, McCain said the USPS has no business sending freebies to selected members of Congress while the organization has a $7 billion deficit and wants to close 170 post offices. Until the Postal Service no longer owes American taxpayers billions of dollars, I request that you refrain from spending limited Postal Service resources on unnecessary items such as engraved albums showcasing commemoratives (sic)…
Congress can’t seem to pass a spending bill on time or figure out health care reform, but as CNN points out, at least they’ve got time to consider resolutions to honor Confucius and establish National Pi Day. CNN says Congress has taken up more than 300 commemorative resolutions so far this year. It would be one thing if these feel-good measures were simple formalities that sailed right through Congress. But that’s not how it works. My fellow reporter Rebecca Neal says she’s seen bills like last year’s H. Res. 1255 — a resolution honoring Toby Keith — eat up hours of floor time…
The Senate confirmed Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Nov. 21. Senators confirmed Gordon by voice vote during a break in work on the Senate’s health care bill.
Rep. Eliot Engel is trying again to ban smoking near federal buildings. The New York Democrat unsuccessfully introduced a bill during the last Congress to ban smoking within 25 feet of any federal building’s entrances, exits, windows that can be opened and ventilation intakes. Engel reintroduced the bill Nov. 18 to correspond with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smoke Out smoking-cessation campaign. The Surgeon General reported in 2006 that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. One step we can take in limiting such exposure is to free the entrances of buildings of the clouds of…
Two critical federal leadership positions may soon be filled. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has unanimously approved Erroll Southers as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration and Daniel Gordon as administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The committee approved both nominations by voice vote Nov. 19. It’s unclear whether the Senate will vote on these, or any other nominations, before it recesses sometime next week for Thanksgiving. Both nominees are considered non controversial.