Government
As part of the yearly budget process for the Department of Homeland Security, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ron Johnson (R-WI) opened the budget submission for fiscal year 2017 on Tuesday.
“I would like to thank Secretary Jeh Johnson for appearing... Read More »
According to a study released on Monday by the Governing Institute, AT&T and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), 80 percent of elected and appointed officials say that they don’t know if their home state has a cybersecurity incident plan in place.
The survey included responses from a... Read More »
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released its travel and trade-related statistics for fiscal year 2015 on Monday.
“I want to thank the men and women of CBP for their unrelenting commitment to our national security mission,” CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske said. “CBP... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Peace Bridge Port of Entry arrested three suspects on Saturday in a failed smuggling attempt on March 1.
A Canadian citizen, Leszek Budzyna, was charged with attempted alien smuggling and making false statements to officials. Two Polish... Read More »
A coalition of New York congressional representatives last week announced more than $60 million in federal grants to support counterterrorism and emergency preparedness activities in counties across New York State.
The group included New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), along with U.S. Sens. Chuck... Read More »
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) announced on Thursday the release of a report on the ongoing state of the U.S.’s counterterrorism efforts entitled Terrorism Gone Viral.
One of the key takeaways from the report’s findings is that ISIS’s focus has shifted from the... Read More »
At the 14th Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Global Synchronization Conference on March 1, U.S. Navy Adm. Cecil D. Haney, U.S. Strategic Command commander, spoke about the importance of cooperation and innovation in the fight against weapons of mass destruction.
“To ensure the... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Thursday the opening of a Global Entry Enrollment Center in Port Clinton that will operate as a center for processing applicants for CBP’s trusted traveler programs, including Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI.
Enrollment centers like the new... Read More »
A new study published this week in the online open-access journal mBio suggests that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) develops mutations that make the virus less virulent, rather than more virulent.
The virus causes severe respiratory infection and has a worldwide... Read More »
A group of witnesses stood before members of the Financial Services Task Force to Investigate Terror Financing this week and said that despite the efforts of international regulatory bodies and other entities, no central body effectively counteracts terrorist financing.
During the hearing, the... Read More »
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the National Commission on Security and Technology on Monday.
The commission was formed in the wake of the Apple’s public refusal to follow the FBI’s order to program a backdoor into... Read More »
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and Technology Office, along with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, announced this week that a compound demonstrated no adverse effects in its Phase 1 trials against the Ebola virus.
The compound, GS-5734,... Read More »
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced this week that they have developed a new simulation for drug-membrane permeability, increasing the production speed for nerve agent treatments.
By using in-house supercomputers, LLNL researchers are simulating the energy... Read More »
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on Wednesday about the continuing danger posed by Zika virus to the Americas and plans to respond to the virus both nationally and internationally.
Zika virus is primarily spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Such... Read More »
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced on Monday the discovery of one of the key ways the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) changes and adapts between patients, allowing for even more research on the complex condition.
MERS-CoV is a deadly... Read More »
The Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security are developing a new system that allows researchers to scan the planet for anomalies in human and animal disease prevalence.
The Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) is a program from the DoD’s Threat Reduction Agency’s Joint Science and... Read More »
The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced a discovery last week that a single monoclonal antibody isolated from a human Ebola virus disease survivor protected non-human primates from the virus.
The antibody can now advance to testing in humans as a potential... Read More »
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) recently announced that it has developed a device known as SmartCAR that uses colorimetric assay to identify such dangerous chemical compounds as anthrax, ricin and plague.
“Although much of the technology in SmartCAR is commercial off-the-shelf, it... Read More »
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced a collaborative effort on Thursday to establish the “Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB) Biopharmaceutical Accelerator” to help fight against antimicrobial resistance.
The collaboration involves the... Read More »
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) announced the signing of a series of licensing agreements on Thursday with Biodetech, LLC, allowing the company to utilize the Agents of Biological Origin Identifier (ABOid).
ABOid is a pathogen identification platform developed by... Read More »
A subcommittee hearing chaired by U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) on Thursday heard testimony from leading cybersecurity experts on the serious national security threats currently faced by the U.S. from other nation states and malicious cyber actors.
The hearing, held by the House Homeland... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives passed three key Homeland Security Committee bills on Tuesday.
Rep. John Katko (R-NY) introduced two bills, the Transportation Security Administration Reform and Improvement Act and the National Strategy to Combat Terrorist Travel Act of 2016. The former passed... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) responded to concerns on Thursday regarding questions it received on its request for proposal (RFP) and the deployment of the nationwide public safety broadband network.
“We are pleased with the interest and questions we received from industry,... Read More »
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) on Wednesday praised the addition of Libya, Somalia, and Yemen to the list of countries of concern.
“I commend Secretary Johnson for adding Libya, Somalia, and Yemen to the list of countries of... Read More »
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Gil Kerlikowske gave a speech on Wednesday at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg highlighting the future of the CBP and the day to day operations it faces.
“So what does a typical day look like?” Kerlikowske said. “On a... Read More »
Meetings of the Five Country Ministerial and the Quintet of Attorneys General meetings were jointly held on Feb. 16-17 by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Director of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to discuss the latest issue surrounding international security.
Lynch and Johnson’s... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently highlighted the first response role of career epidemiology field officers (CEFOs) in the event of a viral outbreak of pandemic.
The CEFO program was instituted by the CDC in 2002 as a response to Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the anthrax... Read More »
U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) announced on Tuesday that approximately $6.85 million in federal grants will go to North Dakota to support homeland security and emergency management.
Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said that the... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently detailed the extensive security effort in securing the site for Super Bowl 50.
Among the agencies involved in the effort were the Travel Safety Administration (TSA), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),... Read More »
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced the release of FY 2016 Notices of Funding Opportunity on Tuesday for 10 DHS preparedness grant programs totaling more than $1.6 billion.
The programs provide funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, as well as... Read More »
Guidelines and procedures laid out by the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 were issued on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.
Federal agencies and private businesses are provided with a clear understanding of how to share cyber threat indicators with DHS’s National Cybersecurity and... Read More »
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) announced on Tuesday that Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) has been named chairman of the Border and Maritime Subcommittee, while Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) will become the chairman of the Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications... Read More »
The American Society for Microbiology sent a letter this week in support of President Barack Obama’s request to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations for a $1.8 billion fund for emergency Zika relief.
The letter was signed by Lynn Enquist, president of the American Society for... Read More »
The European Union announced on Monday the creation of the European Medical Corps (EMC), a special agency dedicated to providing medical assistance as well as first response expertise and technology from across the EU to threats both within and without the EU.
The foundations for the EMC was... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced at the end of January that it will create open-access datasets for researchers and industry.
To fund this venture, the DoE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) $3 million for two projects... Read More »
