Cuts to E-Gov Fund Could Slow Federal Cloud Transition

A look at the week of September 26 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved three controversial data breach bills.  Spending cuts might limit the government’s ability to transition to cloud computing and take advantage of long-term cost savings.  A new Senate bill aims to stop large firms from pirating federal contracts meant for small businesses.

Panel Approves Data-Breach Bills Despite Partisan Rancor — The Senate Judiciary Committee approved three bills to set national standards for security breaches involving personal data, reports National Journal. Each bill would require companies to take reasonable steps to secure personal information about consumers and to notify consumers when their personal data has been.  Some lawmakers voiced concerns with the bills, saying they would burden both big and small businesses and could lead to job losses.

Cuts To E-Gov Fund Could Slow Federal Cloud Transition — Current funding levels for electronic government initiatives in the House and Senate Appropriations committees could cripple the government's ability to modernize federal IT and save money in the long run, reports Nextgov.com. Those modernization programs include new security and certification projects aimed at helping agencies transition their data storage to more nimble cloud computing, a government-wide initiative that officials expect to save $5 billion annually.

Bill Seeks to Clean Up Federal Contracting — A Senate bill unveiled this week by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) seeks to prevent large companies from scooping up federal contracts set aside for small firms. The bill would require the Small Business Administration and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to develop a new classification system with no more than 20 industry size standards, among other measures. It would also close a loophole that enables some large non-manufacturing firms to vie for small manufacturing contracts, says The Wall Street Journal