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U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) spoke out
about his support of a bill that would bar aliens associated with a criminal
gang and convicted of a crime from entering the United States.
Singh’s Law was introduced earlier
this year by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin... Read More »
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) forwarded correspondence Tuesday to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry seeking clarity regarding the nation's nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
In the letter, Rubio and Menendez expressed concern and sought clarification about the... Read More »
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) was appointed to
serve as a commissioner on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, or the Helsinki Commission.
The Helsinki Commission, founded in 1976, was
created to advance democracy and human rights through military, economic, and
environmental... Read More »
A group of Republican U.S. senators sent a letter to the
leaders of the Senate Budget Committee expressing their support for the $750
billion defense request in President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget.
The senators – including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dan
Sullivan (R-AK), Marsha... Read More »
Rep. John Katko (R-NY) introduced legislation to
create a cybersecurity advisory committee to help fight cyberattacks.
The Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) would
be comprised of cybersecurity professionals from every major business sector
that are responsible for protecting... Read More »
A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would equip
state and local law enforcement with high-tech devices to detect dangerous
drugs like fentanyl.
The legislation – called the Providing Officers with
Electronic Resources (POWER) Act -- would create a new grant program through
the U.S.... Read More »
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen met this
week with senior officials from Mexico and other central American nations to
discuss border security and immigration.
On March 26, Nielsen met with Mexican Secretary of the
Interior Olga Sanchez Cordero and other senior Mexican... Read More »
A bill recently
introduced in the U.S. House would provide blood testing for military
firefighters who were potentially exposed on the job to toxic chemicals.
The Protecting
Military Firefighters from PFAS Act would test for per- and polyfluoroalkyl
(PFAS) substances during annual physicals... Read More »
The U.S. Air Force launched a new Infrastructure Investment
Strategy (I2S) that marks a significant shift in the way the Air Force
maintains its facilities.
In this new approach, the Air Force is using new analytics
and practices that better predict when work must be done. In essence,... Read More »
House Energy and Commerce Committee
leaders are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) how it plans to protect consumer
privacy and increase data security enforcement activity.
Specifically,
they asked how the FTC would deploy resources if it received an additional funding
for... Read More »
As a means of bolstering forensics data gathering efforts, Marine Corps officials are updating the branch's Expeditionary Forensics Exploitation Capability (EFEC) with newer IT technology.
The EFEC, which is used to differentiate between friend or foe on the battlefield, also serves as a... Read More »
A new global index offers an original way to monitor national-level preparedness for infectious disease, providing a holistic view of a country’s capacity to mitigate the spread of illness and pandemics.
Created by researchers at Metabiota, the Epidemic Preparedness Index (EPI) factors... Read More »
Following last week’s terrorist attack on two New Zealand
mosques where the shooter live-streamed it on social media, U.S. Rep. Bennie
Thompson (D-MS) is calling on the CEOs of four major social media companies to immediately
remove violent terrorist content.
The request was sent to the CEOs... Read More »
Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen delivered Monday the 2019
State of Homeland Security Address, which included operational challenges, the ever-changing
security landscape and the department’s strategic plan.
The address also
included the department’s major... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions said on Tuesday it will begin a Phase 3 trial of a new anthrax vaccine it is developing.
The Phase 3 trial will evaluate the lot consistency, immunogenicity, and safety of the vaccine, called AV7909. AV7909 is designed to elicit a faster immune response than other anthrax... Read More »
The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the topic of a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee this week, highlighting successes and failures in the fight against it.
Foremost, it was shown that the outbreak not only... Read More »
Members of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on
Biodefense praised the passage of legislation that incorporates its
recommendation to direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct a
detailed analysis of the Trump Administration's budget for biodefense as part
of the annual budget... Read More »
Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate last week would prohibit
commercial users of facial recognition technology (FR) from collecting and
sharing consumer data without their consent.
The Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019 was
co-sponsored by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Brian... Read More »
Several states are grappling with how to handle current public health threats around the re-emergence of measles just as they also continue efforts to end the ongoing tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.
Both threats came up during discussions at the March 14 hearing, entitled the “Review of the Ebola... Read More »
The United States is struggling to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other partners in fighting what has become the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak, federal public health officials on Thursday told members of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and... Read More »
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, introduced Wednesday a pair of measures designed to address small cybersecurity threats.
The SBA Cyber Awareness Act would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to develop a cyber... Read More »
The U.S. Air Force will see a $10
billion budget increase in fiscal year 2020 under the White House spending plan
unveiled this week.
With the proposed increase, the Air
Force’s budget would rise to $165 billion in fiscal year 2020, which begins
Oct. 1, 2019. It includes funding for new... Read More »
Citing ongoing violence, deteriorating security, and humanitarian crisis circumstances, a group of lawmakers recently requested that the Trump Administration designate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joined Dick Durbin... Read More »
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a bill to support the U.S. government’s efforts to reduce violent extremism and address global fragility.
The Global Fragility Act requires the Secretary of State, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the... Read More »
A bill designed to help law enforcement and financial
institutions identify and report suspected human traffickers was approved by
the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week.
The End Banking for Human Traffickers Act, sponsored by U.S.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Bill Keating (D-MA),... Read More »
Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced Wednesday a measure designed to repeal a pair of Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq and end Gulf and Iraq war authorizations.
Specifically, the legislation will repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs.
“There is no... Read More »
The U.S. House of Representatives advanced a bill
last week that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases and
transfers.
The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 was approved
by a vote of 240-190 with only 8 Republicans supporting it. It now moves to the
Senate for action.... Read More »
Battelle, an applied science and technology nonprofit
company, recently sent two employees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to
provide training to local healthcare officials in dealing with the Ebola Virus.
Ebola remains a significant health issue in Africa. The
nation is currently... Read More »
Several groups, including the National Sheriff’s
Association, voiced their support for a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton
(R-AR) that would bar aliens associated with a criminal gang and convicted of a
crime from entering the United States.
The bill, called Singh's law, says aliens... Read More »
Reps. Will Hurd (R-TX), Xochitl Torres Small (D-NM) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) introduced last week a measure designed to streamline and amend the overtime payment process, enabling border patrol personnel greater compensation flexibility.
The Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Amendment Act of 2019... Read More »
The United States is not as prepared as it could be in key areas of public health disaster management, according to a recently issued report by Trust for America’s Health.
In Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, the report’s authors... Read More »
Several federal government agencies, including the
Department of Homeland Security, introduced a program this week called the
Opioid Detection Challenge, a $1.55 million competition to develop opioid
detection technologies.
The Opioid Detection Challenge calls upon innovators
to submit plans... Read More »
Recognizing the potential for public health emergencies to be exacerbated by lack of cooperation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have created a joint task force to make... Read More »
Federal lawmakers are focused on deterring domestic terrorism, which now ranks alongside — or possibly even eclipses — the prevention of global extremist threats against the nation, said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
“What’s on our minds a lot now is... Read More »
A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of
Representatives that would allow assets seized from Mexican drug lords,
including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, to be used to secure the
southern border.
The Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to
Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act would set... Read More »
