Quick Hits

*** Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, is seeking a broad array of emails and other communications from the White House covering everything sent or received in violation of the federal records law and White House policy. In a July 1 letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Cummings announced the expansion of an previous probe into White House communication practices. That previous inquiry, which had been launched and managed by Republican chairmen of the Oversight Committee, sought the names of individuals whose email communication took place exclusively on personal devices, information on the use of encrypted messaging apps and particular details on the messaging habits of First Daughter and presidential advisor Ivanka Trump.

In his letter, Cummings cites repeated request for information from the White House being ignored as well as new information from the Mueller Report and elsewhere that indicate that senior White House officials were conducting business on personal devices without attempting to preserve records.

"The White House's complete obstruction of the Committee's investigation for the past six months is an affront to our constitutional system of government," Cummings wrote.

*** The Railroad Retirement Board has signed another contract with a different vendor under the federal government's $50 billion next-generation Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) vehicle. The June 6 task order went to CenturyLink for a 13-year, $3 million contract for Ethernet point-to-point circuit services solutions, according to a filing in the Federal Procurement Data System. The task order would cover $198,000 initially, with a possible ceiling of $3.3 million by the contract’s conclusion in 2032.

The contract with CenturyLink is the agency's second under EIS in the last two months. On May 17, the RRB awarded an IT and telecom systems analysis, including web hosting services, contract to AT&T. That task order was for $1 million over the first year, but it has a $10 million ceiling over 13 years, until its conclusion in 2032.