Congress
House BIOTech caucus is weighing IP security and AI-enabled biotech policy
Lawmakers on the caucus say they won’t push any new legislation forward before the end of the year, but they spotlit intellectual property protection and AI-enabled gene synthesis as concerns.
House panel subpoenas Oracle heads over VA health record overhaul’s ballooning costs
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted 19-0 to subpoena Oracle Chairman and Co-founder Larry Ellison and Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia after VA announced plans to boost its contract with the tech giant by $17 billion.
Senator asks NSA to update Americans about VPN spying risks
A congressional analysis found foreign spies could trace users by comparing encrypted traffic entering and leaving a VPN server, according to the lawmaker’s office.
Stopgap funding bill temporarily extends key cyber info-sharing law
The short-term package pushes the sunset date for the bedrock cyber legislation to Dec. 11, in addition to setting extensions for the Technology Modernization Fund and National Cybersecurity Protection System.
TMF will have $200M to spend next year without appropriations, official says
The federal government plans to announce new projects receiving modernization dollars at the end of next month, ahead of a possible expiration for the fund.
Lawmakers call for watchdog review of Transportation’s passenger privacy practices
The Department of Transportation “has never taken a single enforcement action related to privacy,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.
Lawmakers press Commerce to restrict Americans from aiding foreign spy agencies
A bipartisan group says unfinished export control rules leave civilian intelligence services able to obtain U.S. cyber, surveillance and AI assistance.
Dem lawmaker hopes to add AI containment language to FRONTIER Act
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., is pushing for a September markup of the landmark AI legislation along with new language on model containment following the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident.
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House Democrats ask GAO to review CISA workforce cuts
Lawmakers want Congress’ watchdog to assess what capabilities were lost after the cyber agency shed roughly one-third of its staff.
GAO official suggests addressing AI risks through existing legislation
Nick Marinos, the managing director of IT and cybersecurity issues at GAO, said leveraging existing avenues for cybersecurity information sharing can expedite getting AI safety policies into law.
Senate’s short-term funding bill provides temporary extensions for TMF, cyber data-sharing law
The continuing resolution that overwhelmingly passed the upper chamber this weekend would push the federal government’s funding deadline until Dec. 11.
Senate Finance panel’s top Dem proposes excise tax on new data centers
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden’s draft white paper calls for a new tax on hyperscalers and data center operators.
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Senate confirms Adam Cassady to run State Department cyberspace bureau
The confirmation comes as the tech diplomacy shop he would traditionally lead in his new role has seen significant reorganizations in the last year.
CISA cautions against rigid rules for future of cyber vulnerability program
A top agency official said formal backing from Congress could strengthen the global vulnerability-tracking system but warned against measures that may limit its ability to adapt to ever-changing hacking threats.
Chinese telecom firms kept footholds in US networks despite federal crackdowns, House probe finds
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom retained equipment, data center space and network ties after FCC restrictions, including a China Mobile-linked network that appeared in routes to Salt Typhoon servers.
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Lawmakers propose giving 2015 OPM breach victims identity protection for life
The federal government’s coverage for 22.1 million people hoovered up in the China-linked breaches is scheduled to end Sept. 30.
NVIDIA CEO to meet with Sen. Cruz on AI
The meeting follows his and other companies’ public push for continued open-source AI model access.
Senate confirms Clayton as Trump’s next intelligence director
The former SEC chairman will replace acting intelligence chief Bill Pulte, whose brief tenure oversaw repeated personnel cuts to the nation’s top spy office.
Lawmakers introduce bill mandating kill switches for AI models
Bipartisan lawmakers are seeking to ensure advanced AI models can be quickly shut down following ChatGPT’s automated attack on Hugging Face data networks during internal testing.
GOP Financial Services report cites AI as both fraud accelerator and preventer
With AI playing a more prominent role in the scammer’s playbook, the report says “the counter to this is ensuring that those empowered to prevent and respond to fraud and scams — namely public and private sector entities — deploy the same tools.”
