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Policy

Tech bills of the week: Creating data privacy standards; Securing critical infrastructure from drones; and more

Congressional lawmakers introduced a raft of proposals this week, including bills to balance the power needs of data centers with consumer energy costs and to establish guidelines on the types of advanced semiconductors that can be sold to China.

Emerging Tech

House lawmakers introduce quantum initiative reauthorization

The House version of the NQIA Reauthorization runs in parallel with the Senate version, with industry reacting well to its application-focused language.

Digital Government

NIST is giving fingerprint examiners better tools for a messy job

A newly annotated fingerprint dataset combined with open-source software could help forensic examiners work more consistently, train more effectively and sort through evidence faster.

Sponsor Content

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Acquisition

Commerce goes direct to hyperscalers with $4.1B cloud pact

The department cites artificial intelligence, weather modeling and scale as reasons to narrow the competition.

Artificial Intelligence

White House accuses China of ‘deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns’ to steal US AI models

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy told federal agencies that the Trump administration will be enhancing its engagement with the private sector to counter foreign-led distillation campaigns designed to undermine U.S. AI advances.

Digital Government

IRS lacks transparent plans to leverage tech in the face of staffing cuts, GAO and employees say

Agency leaders are “shoving AI at us,” one IRS employee said, despite the fact that “they don’t have the right tools for us yet.”

Defense

Autonomous weapons will be ‘key and essential part’ of warfare, Joint Chiefs chair says

Chairman Dan Caine also said the U.S. needs to become a “better” buyer of advanced tools and tech for defense activities.

People

Andrew Vanjani becomes CIO for USCIS

Vanjani has held several positions across federal and state agencies and will take over a position left vacant for nearly a year after former USCIS CIO Bill McElhaney departed in May.

People

Trump nominates third VA CIO since the start of his administration

Gary Shatswell, a senior advisor to VA Secretary Doug Collins, was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve in the role of CIO and assistant secretary for information and technology.

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People

Plankey withdraws nomination to lead CISA

It’s not clear who Trump will tap to lead the cyberdefense agency following Plankey's withdrawal.

Modernization

‘Faster and more disruptive’ tech underscores need to revamp the Fed's operations, its governor says

“The pace of technological change today means that the Fed does not have the time to sit back and ruminate about changes for months and years on end,” Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft to test third-party AI models for incorporation in its security offerings

The announcement follows Anthropic’s debut of its leading-edge Mythos model, which the company says has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity

Cyber Command carried out over 8,000 missions in 2025, director says

The command expects to exceed that number in 2026, Gen. Josh Rudd told lawmakers Tuesday. A new Pentagon cyber strategy is also on the way, according to senior cyber official Katie Sutton.

Emerging Tech

US needs to flesh out strategy to counter China’s robotics advances, lawmakers say

“We can and still must lead in the field of robotics, but to achieve that goal, we need a concerted national effort to support innovation across the full robotics system,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said.

Modernization

Transportation celebrates air traffic control modernization, asks lawmakers for more funding

The government has been trying to modernize the U.S. national airspace system for decades, with little success. Trump’s Transportation Department secretary says this time is different.

Acquisition

OMB seeks details from agencies on their commercial buying, or lack thereof

A new White House budget office memo also outlines what agencies have to do if they want to go down the non-commercial contracting route and who has the approval power over it.

Modernization

House FY27 VA funding bill allocates $3.4B for EHR rollout

The measure, which was voted out of the House Appropriations Committee, withholds 25% of the funds for the EHR modernization project until July 1, 2027, contingent upon VA providing lawmakers with additional information and meeting performance requirements.

Policy

GSA and OPM will soon share the same headquarters

The General Services Administration will temporarily move into the Office of Personnel Management’s building before both agencies ultimately transfer to a renovated GSA headquarters.

Cybersecurity

Former FBI official proposes terror designations for ransomware hackers targeting hospitals

Cynthia Kaiser’s proposal also explores homicide charges under the federal felony murder rule in cases where attacks lead to patient deaths.