Several activities of lawmakers caught the attention of stakeholders in the GovCon arena this week in the areas of acquisition reform and cybersecurity.
 Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), who became chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in January, introduced a defense acquisition reform bill the committee believes can change how the Pentagon buys products and services and roll back some of the military’s bureaucracy.
The full text of the bill was due Wednesday and Thornberry offered a preview of the legislationMonday to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As written in this space last week, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress made separate moves to advance bills on cybersecurity information sharing between the public and private sectors.
 For its part, the House Intelligence Committee had a Thursday vote on its schedule to consider an information sharing bill that includes liability protection for companies that share cyber intelligence with the government.
Private businesses would exchange information with agencies through a portal run by DHS under the Protecting Cyber Networks Act.
Mike Brown, global public sector lead at RSA, called on Congress to give companies liability relief in any cyber bill and for a new national breach process in an op-ed piece for CSO Online.
“For our part, businesses around the nation need to join America’s elected officials in the common purpose of cybersecurity: becoming aggressive defenders of our collective right to digital security,” Brown added. THIS WEEK’S TOP NEWS STORIES |
