News from inside the beltway

In early May, 21 state CIOs from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) met with U.S. representatives and their staffs on Capitol Hill to discuss security issues. Cybersecurity, data sharing and privacy were among the items on the table. This is the fourth consecutive year that members of NASCIO have held their midyear conference in the nation’s capital, hoping to remind federal officials of the association’s value as an information resource. Cybersecurity was the issue that garnered the most CIO attention.

The Real ID Act is a controversial bill sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.). A handful of lawmakers have attached the bill to supplemental legislation needed to fund the war in Iraq. The Real ID Act imposes what critics are calling overly prescriptive, expensive and nonfunctional requirements for state motor vehicle departments. The act also requires state officials to verify documents such as Social Security cards before issuing licenses, and entails confirmation of the legal status of noncitizens with a national immigration information database.The bill was passed by the House in May 5 and the Senate on May 10.

The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2005 is a bill that would create a more powerful cybersecurity chief within DHS. It has been approved by the House Homeland Security Committee’s Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee. The bill comes at a time when many current and former DHS officials are talking about increasing the authority of the department’s CIO. The bill would create a National Cybersecurity Office within DHS, and would replace the current National Cybersecurity Division’s director with a new assistant secretary for cybersecurity.