On May 10, 2013, Citizens Against Government Waste hosted a briefing on “Saving Taxpayer Dollars through Better Software Management’ to bring light to the need for sound software procurement policy, particularly in these times of fiscal constraint. The panelists were the former Department of Homeland Security Chief Information Officer and former Chief Information Officer for the Aviation Traffic Organization at the Federal Aviation Administration Steven I. Cooper, and Eric Cho, a procurement policy analyst for the Department of Homeland Security currently on assignment with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The event was moderated by this author.
Set and Match!
On Tuesday, May 28, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) ruling on the placement of the Tennis Channel in Comcast’s cable tiers of service. Comcast, a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD), already offered the Tennis Channel to its subscribers in its premium package, as part of […]
The Devil is in the Details on STEM Consolidation
There is little doubt that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs are essential to the nation’s ability to compete in the global economy.
ECPA Reform Necessary to Prevent Unwarranted Searches
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was enacted in 1986, long before widespread use of the Internet. Today’s society communicates in a dramatically different manner than in 1986, with an increasing amount of data stored digitally with third party providers.
ECPA Reform Moves Forward
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) applauds approval by voice vote today of S. 607, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2013, by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Spectrum Auction Winners or Losers
The federal government is once again picking winners and losers.
Next Steps for Net Neutrality
With the recent announcement by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski of his impending departure, the new commission chair will take charge of what has been called in The Atlantic Wire as “one of the more powerful regulatory bodies in the United States government.”
DOD and VA Stumble Over Interoperability
The private sector was mandated by the HITECH Act to use an Electronic Health Records Systems (EHRs) that has the electronic capability to exchange key clinical information with other healthcare providers.
Testing the Waters on Health Technology
While the number of physicians who use computers to store patient information is rising, most are still clinging to large manila file folders to record and retain complete patient histories. U.S. News and World Report reported on February 20, 2013 that, in spite of incentives from the U.S. government, a study conducted by Adam Write, a senior research scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, found that doctors are slow to adopt electronic health records (EHRs), with only 1 in 6 using the new technology.
Congress Requests GAO Investigation into Broadband Overbuild
On February 13, 2013, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the broadband stimulus programs managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS).