 The Department of Homeland Security faces the prospect of at least a partial shutdown that would go into effect Saturday, barring the passage of legislation in Congress to continue funding DHS.
As of this publication’s release, the Senate cleared a procedural hurdle before a scheduled vote on the bill that would extend DHS’ operations.
A separate report by The Hill newspaper says DHS would furlough 30,000 employees if the department shuts down and the other 90 percent would work without pay until a new funding package is passed by Congress.
Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard’s top uniformed official, called on lawmakers to pass a DHS funding bill in a blog post published Monday and outlined what he believes could happen to his agency if it shuts down, even temporarily.
“In the event of a lapse in appropriations, nearly $1 billion in acquisition and maintenance contracts will continue to be deferred or otherwise disrupted – reducing the long-term operational availability and effectiveness of the Coast Guard. These delays erode the security of our maritime borders,” he wrote.
The Potomac Officers Club will turn its attention on March 19 to the cybersecurity arena with “2015 Cyber Security Summit,” a half-day forum for government and business leaders to interact and exchange ideas for how to protect information systems.
Loss of trade secrets and customer information, capabilities of nation-states, public-private partnerships to tackle those issues and U.S. government policies are among several topics slated for discussion at the summit.
Speakers scheduled to appear include: - Joe Demarest, assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division
- Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center
- Phil Lacombe, VP & manager of Parsons’ information systems and security sector
- Tom McMillan, a director at Siemens Government Technologies
- Steve Shirley, executive director of the Defense Cyber Crime Center
- Bobbie Stempfley, acting assistant director of DHS’ office of cybersecurity and communications
- Mark Weatherford, former deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity at DHS
Click here to register for this event and learn more about POC’s other upcoming events. THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS STORIES |
