Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, both members of the 9/11 Commission, appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security to discuss the nature of the terrorist threat to the United States. “The conventional wisdom for years has been that al Qaeda’s preferred method was a spectacular attack like 9/11. But the defining characteristic of today’s [...]

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, Department of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty strengthens the nation’s defenses and urged the Senate to ratify the pact between the United States and Russia. “This treaty reduces the strategic nuclear forces of our two nations in a manner that [...]

NASA has launched an initiative that will help reach tomorrow’s leaders and innovators and get a younger generation to consider the space agency as a first choice for employment. On OpenNASA.com, a collaborative blog written by NASA employees  and occasional invited guests, Nick Skytland, a project manager within the Space Life Sciences Directorate at the [...]

Two large government contractors recently announced they had been awarded contracts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help modernize the agency’s three external websites and speed up the development of  electronic health records. CMS awarded CGI Federal a five-year contract worth $73.2 million as the agency continues to modernize and maintain the [...]

The Federal Communications Commission announced today that more than 20 technology companies are going to participate in the Clean Technology Showcase at the agency’s headquarters. Confirmed technology exhibits include home energy management systems, smart appliances, smart electric meters, smart grid communications equipment, eco-friendly mobile handsets, green IT products, datacenter energy efficiency solutions, and much more. [...]

The Health and Human Services Department will conduct surveys to learn more about patient perceptions and preferences for the use of health IT when it comes to healthcare. While health IT experts agree HITECH stimulus funds are likely to enhance how healthcare providers practice medicine for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and advance patient-focused medical care [...]

The Army expanded its collaboration with higher education last week to create a formal research agreement with Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md. In a May 10 ceremony at the campus, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Nick Justice signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Morgan State University [...]

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Harold Varmus as director of the National Cancer Institute yesterday. Varmus is a former director of the National Institute of Health, bringing a wealth of expertise to the position. Varmus is a co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the study of the [...]

President Barack Obama is set to nominate John Pistole as the next TSA assistant secretary. This is Obama’s third nomination for this position as the first two nominees withdrew their nominations after running into confirmation issues. Pistole is currently the deputy director of the FBI and has held this position since fall of 2004. He [...]

Steve Cooper is the CIO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, responsible for the information technology architecture used by 35,000 air traffic controllers to safely direct more than 7,000 takeoffs and landings per hour and more than 660 million passengers per year. Previously, he served as DHS’ first CIO from 2003 to 2005, leaving in [...]