Category Archives: Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee

DHS nominee Kirstjen Nielsen gets committee nod 11-4

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 11-4 Tuesday to advance the nomination of Kirstjen Nielsen as the next secretary of Homeland Security, despite Democratic concerns about her experience, doubts about her independence from the White House and ethics questions from a nonprofit watchdog group. The nomination now moves onto the full Senate, and sources tell CyberScoop that Republican leaders want a floor vote before the Thanksgiving recess starts Friday. Four senators voted against advancing the nomination: Tom Carper, D-Del., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. and Gary Peters, D-Mich. All four were signatories — along with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. — on a letter last week calling for a second hearing where Nielsen could answer additional questions about her experience and independence from the White House. The letter followed a Washington Post report that Nielsen’s current boss, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, had tried to bully acting DHS […]

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DHS nomination vote postponed again amid ethics violation allegations

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A Senate committee vote to confirm Kirstjen Nielsen as the next Secretary of Homeland Security has been postponed a third time amid ethics charges and requests by Democrats for a second hearing. The business meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — originally scheduled for last week, then moved to Monday and subsequently postponed until Tuesday morning — was pushed back again overnight to some time Tuesday afternoon. “By agreement of the chairman and ranking member, [Tuesday] morning’s business meeting is postponed to be rescheduled … at a time to be determined in conjunction with upcoming floor votes. Further notice will be forthcoming,” read a note from committee leadership Monday evening. The postponement follows an ethics complaint filed against Nielsen Monday by the nonprofit nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, regarding her acceptance of voluntary services from non-government personnel to help her prepare for her confirmation hearing last week. A spokeswoman […]

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Watchdog complains about consultant helping Nielsen’s DHS confirmation

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A government ethics watchdog is calling for an investigation into potential violations of federal laws and ethics regulations by Homeland Security secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen, following CyberScoop reports that a consultant representing companies with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake had volunteered to help run her confirmation preparation. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center has asked federal officials — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions — to probe the matter. Government departments aren’t allowed to accept voluntary work, for the same reason officials cannot accept valuable gifts — because of the risk it might create an obligation that could be repaid with an official act, explained the center’s Brendan Fischer. “There’s a risk that such work would engender a feeling indebtedness on Nielsen’s part,” Fischer told CyberScoop, noting that DHS handed out $23 billion worth of contracts last year. “It appears that Nielsen has been guided through the confirmation process by an individual whose clients have hundreds […]

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Senate Dems want second confirmation hearing for DHS secretary nominee Nielsen

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Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are calling for a second hearing for Homeland Security secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen after revelations of political interference in immigration decisions and resignation threats from the acting DHS secretary. In a letter to committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Democratic members cite a Washington Post story saying that John Kelly, the former DHS secretary and current White House chief of staff, tried to bully acting secretary Elaine Duke into ending a special immigration status called TPS — designed to protect undocumented migrants from being deported to countries torn apart by wars or natural disasters. Duke, a highly experienced Senate-confirmed official who is well-liked within the department, threatened to resign, the Post reported. The confirmation process is being closely watched in the cybersecurity policy circles because of the departments key role in defending federal IT networks and America’s vital industries from online attack […]

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Senators postpone quick vote on Nielsen

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A Senate committee vote on Kirstjen Nielsen’s nomination to become the next secretary of Homeland Security was postponed until at least next week after members submitted nearly 200 questions for the record Thursday. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee had been scheduled to hold a vote on the nomination just 24 hours after Nielsen’s confirmation hearing — a breathtakingly fast turnaround for the Senate. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., told a business meeting of the committee Thursday that the vote would be delayed until at least Monday, as Nielsen, who is currently White House deputy chief of staff, drafts answers to 197 follow-up questions that she received from committee members after Wednesday’s hearing. “To put things into perspective, about the only comparable secretary nomination mid-cycle was [President Obama’s second DHS secretary] Jeh Johnson,” said the chairman. There were 42 questions for the record after that nomination hearing, he added. “Nobody was doing anything on our side to […]

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Here’s how cybersecurity was dealt with in Kirstjen Nielsen’s confirmation hearing

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Kirstjen Nielsen, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Homeland Security Secretary, said during her confirmation hearing Wednesday that securing the nation’s computer networks against hackers, spies and online crooks was one of the key missions of the sprawling federal department. Lawmakers with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee mostly agreed with that sentiment. Then everyone proceeded to largely ignore the subject for the rest of the hearing. Wednesday was instead dominated by the political lightning rods of border security, immigration enforcement and even climate change. There were questions about Nielsen’s relative lack of senior-level leadership experience, but cybersecurity — one of the increasingly rare topics on which there is actually bipartisan agreement in Congress — took a back seat. The hearing yielded some dribs and drabs of cyber, however, which we’ve chronicled below. From elections to the energy grid A key cybersecurity topic focused on electronic voting machines and other online election systems — starting with the […]

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HHS faces flak over new cyber center

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The Department of Health and Human Services’ new national cybersecurity intelligence-sharing clearinghouse appears to duplicate the role of similar entities in the federal government and in the private sector, say key lawmakers and some leaders in the health care industry. Critics say the creation of the Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, or HCCIC, is moving the goalposts for the industry, which was answering the U.S. government’s call to create a private-sector cyberthreat-sharing ecosystem. HCCIC is being modeled after the Department of Homeland Security’s 24-hour watch center, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, or NCCIC — and some fret it may duplicate its functions. Defenders of the new clearinghouse are playing down the idea that HCCIC might be redundant. They argue it can provide a depth of specialist knowledge about the health care sector DHS lacks, and that the industry’s own membership-based information sharing organizations cannot match the universal service HCCIC will provide. The health care industry “feels […]

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