With the fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations process underway, more than 165 local election officials and associations from 40 states are calling on Congress to provide $400 million in election security funding they say is necessary to protect the integrity of the voting process.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., is pushing to give the Commerce Department an extra $500 million for artificial intelligence (AI) tech capabilities – and to block state AI regulations – through the budget reconciliation process that is kicking off in Congress this week.

A year after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made a call for a unified Federal government broadband strategy, that idea appeared to attract some backing at a House subcommittee hearing on May 10 that tackled possible next steps for consolidating and organizing the programs.

Bipartisan legislation was reintroduced in the House on Jan. 11 to address the rise in cybersecurity threats and attacks against energy infrastructure in the United States. 

A new study shows that the transition to 5G wireless services will create an additional 4.6 million jobs in the United States by 2034 – and that the move to the latest generation of wireless technology has created over 100,000 jobs already since last year.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, believes that the Federal government needs to help state and local governments figure out how to bridge the digital divide as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates a need to expand broadband to areas that don’t have it and to provide better services.

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) wrote to Congress on Jan. 6 to thank them for including $425 million in the fiscal year 2020 budget for election security purposes.

Help could be on the way for state and local governments grappling with defending against cyber attacks, in the form of bipartisan legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would authorize the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to operate a grant program for states looking to implement better cybersecurity and recovery measures.