Home » Featured » Page 47
Featured
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 »
Savannah, Georgia-based Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers recently thwarted a narcotics smuggling effort resulting in the seizure of cocaine valued at $19 million.
Officers working at the Savannah seaport last November encountered a Cartagena,... Read More »
As the political situation in Venezuela
deteriorates and a humanitarian crisis blooms, health experts warn that
epidemics could push beyond the nation’s borders and potentially bring a
hemisphere-wide health emergency.
Such were the conclusions of a review published
in a recent edition of The... Read More »
With President Donald Trump’s stated intention to use an emergency declaration to shift funds from other projects for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) has written the Acting Secretary of Defense demanding a list of projects put at risk by the effort.
A number of military... Read More »
Smallpox, although eradicated, has joined the growing list of potential biosecurity threats, according to experts, who say preparedness for the possible return of the virus should be prioritized around the world.
Smallpox, a contagious, disfiguring and often deadly disease, was eradicated... Read More »
A bill was released in the U.S. House of Representatives
that would codify the creation of Cyber Incident Response Teams within the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These cyber response teams would protect the nation’s
information technology networks and critical infrastructure and... Read More »
Through the newly introduced Keep Americans Safe Act, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) seek to ban the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer or even possession of gun magazines that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
These high-capacity magazines have come under fire... Read More »
New York State conducted counterterrorism exercises at 1,000 locations throughout the state in 2018.
The exercises were run by the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services' Office of Counter Terrorism where experts from state and local agencies went undercover as customers... Read More »
Extreme weather events, a CBRN incident, cyberthreats and infectious diseases having pandemic potential all put Americans on notice for 21st century health security hazards, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says in its newly developed National Health Security Strategy... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Defense awarded $3 million to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) to update terrorism-related datasets that serve intelligence community modeling and simulation efforts.
With this new award -- called Enhancing Datastreams... Read More »
With 79 measles cases already confirmed this year, the top Democrat and Republican on the U.S. Senate health committee have dispatched a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), urging them to promote vaccine... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have asked the Department of Homeland Security to assess the national security risks stemming from foreign-made Virtual Private Network (VPN).
The senators specifically mention VPN networks affiliated with countries of national security concern,... Read More »
A bill to reform the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week.
The legislation is designed to better align the act with its original intent as a trade remedy tool for the president and Congress to respond to threats to national security. In keeping with the... Read More »
There’s ample reason to concentrate on the role the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) plays in helping the nation defend against biological attacks, one of the most critical being the protection of America’s military troops, said experts Tuesday during a Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense... Read More »
A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate this week seeks to create a task force to provide recommendations for a national strategy on threat assessment and management.
The Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety (TAPS) Act of 2019 (S. 265) would provide resources, training, and assistance in... Read More »
The United States is backing out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) with Russia citing Russia’s failure to comply with the treaty.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 in the waning days of the former Soviet Union by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General... Read More »
Recognizing that human trafficking is a crime often hidden from the public eye, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced two new social science, data-driven projects to tackle the crime this week.
“Applying social science-based... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) recently conducted an exercise on Plum Island, N.Y. to test grid recovery following a staged cyberattack on a U.S. power grid.
The Liberty Eclipse Phase II exercise is the fourth and largest simulated cyberattack that DARPA has conducted... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) reintroduced legislation to prevent the president from launching a nuclear first strike without congressional approval.
Their bill, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2019 (H.R.669/S.200), was also introduced in the 115th... Read More »
The U.S. Senate advanced a bill this week that includes several measures to bolster the U.S.-Israel strategic alliance.
The Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019 (S. 1) would authorize security assistance to Israel over a 10-year period, reauthorize the United... Read More »
