Quick Hits

*** Democrats in both chambers of Congress introduced a bill that would give healthcare professionals at the Department of Veterans Affairs working under Title 38 status the same collective bargaining opportunities as other VA employees. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) are the lead sponsors of the VA Employee Fairness 5 Act of 2021, which has the backing of the American Federation of Government Employees and National Nurses United.

*** The Office of Personnel Management has added 41 small businesses to the Human Capital and Training Solutions program, which consolidates human capital contracting across the federal government and provides agencies with human capital and training services.

*** The Department of Homeland Security announced Lynn Parker Dupree, a former employee at the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, as its chief privacy officer and chief FOIA officer starting Mar. 22. Dupree, an attorney, most recently served as director of governance and controls in the data ethics and privacy office at Capital One bank.

*** The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has released supplemental requirements to ensure cloud service providers keep their container technology in compliance. Released March 16, the document, Vulnerability Scanning Requirements for Containers, bridges the compliance gaps between traditional cloud and containerized systems by describing "the processes, architecture and security considerations specific to vulnerability scanning for cloud systems using container technology." Get more on this story from GCN.