House Republicans Offer 6 Months of CR in Exchange for Citizenship Check for Voters

House Republicans have a plan to keep the government open for six months to start fiscal year 2025 as part of a continuing resolution. The bill is tied to a provision that would require states to obtain proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering a person to vote. But the Biden administration has said the bill wastes time on extremist politics. The White House has said the CR would also rip off the Defense Department and the Veterans Affairs Department, as well as the Social Security Administration. There are still more than three weeks left in the current fiscal year.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is notifying hundreds of thousands of people about another data breach. CMS said the incident could affect up to 946,000 Medicare customers. It is linked to a Wisconsin contractor that used Move-It file transfer software. Hackers exploited a critical security flaw in the MOVEIt software last May to steal data from hundreds of organizations around the world. CMS said it is not aware of any fraud involving the stolen data.
The IRS is ramping up its efforts to collect taxes owed by wealthy individuals. Six months into a new initiative, the agency has recovered $1.3 billion from wealthy taxpayers. The agency is targeting two categories of delinquent taxpayers — more than 16 millionaires with more than $250,000 in tax debt and 125,000 high-net-worth individuals who haven’t filed a tax return since 2017. The IRS is using Inflation Reduction Act funds to support these enforcement efforts. Its tax defaulter program has been sporadic since 2016 because of budget cuts and staffing constraints.
The Biden administration sees huge potential for AI to improve cybersecurity. The White House is considering a new executive order on cybersecurity that would focus on AI. Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger spoke at last week’s Billington Cybersecurity Conference. “We see a lot of promise in AI,” Neuberger said. Neuberger said AI could help cyberdefenders more quickly detect cyberthreats on their networks. There’s also the potential for AI to help write more secure software and patch vulnerabilities in existing software.
GSA is providing details on the third and final element of its upcoming cloud vehicle. The General Services Administration is seeking comment on its initial thinking about how vendors will deliver IT services under Pool 3 of the ASCEND purchase agreement for cloud services. In the request for information, GSA is asking vendors and agencies about services, including application rationalization, preparing applications for cloud migration and how to best manage multiple instances in the cloud. Comments on the RFI are due Sept. 20. GSA is also seeking comment on its plans for Pool 2 for software-as-a-service vendors.
Agencies have some help getting them through the major steps of planning for the presidential transition this fall. The Office of Management and Budget released guidance Friday detailing what agencies should start doing now to prepare for a new presidential administration in 2025. The OMB guidance points to several deadlines that agencies will face in the next few months. They will be required to prepare briefings on work that will require immediate action once the new president takes office. Agencies will also have to prepare briefings on their budgets and leadership by November of this year.
The Partnership for Public Service has announced more than a dozen winners of the 2024 Service to America Medals, or “Sammies.” This year’s Sammies winners worked to clean up hazardous materials after wildfires in Maui, created the world’s first tornado-resistant building codes, prevented deaths during mining disasters and eradicated widespread child labor violations. The Sammies program highlights the often behind-the-scenes work of civil servants across agencies. The Partnership for Public Service will honor all 2024 Sammies winners at an awards ceremony next Wednesday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Merit Systems Protection Board is taking steps to protect itself from possible future repercussions of a quorum failure. Temporary regulations that the MSPB published in the Federal Register, once finalized, would allow the agency to continue certain types of work even when there are vacancies in executive positions. The regulations would give the MSPB some flexibility to make case decisions even when board members are absent. The new rules are a direct response to the MSPB’s long-standing quorum failure during the Trump administration. At the time, board member absences had led to a significant increase in the backlog of pending federal employee appeals of prohibited personnel practices.