Pelosi supports training for Congress to prevent sexual harassment

• House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she hopes Congress will move quickly to pass legislation requiring lawmakers and their staff to complete training to prevent sexual harassment. Pelosi’s comments came after current and former members of Congress told the Associated Press how they had experienced sexual harassment from fellow lawmakers. Pelosi told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that she believes Congress is at a “tipping point” on the issue. (AP)

• Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have made protecting labor and collective bargaining rights for federal employees a hallmark of their policy goals.  The Democratic leaders’ “Better Deal” plan would also give the National Labor Relations Board the authority to seek court orders to prevent unfair labor practices against federal workers. (Democratic Leader)

• The Senate Armed Services Committee has resumed consideration of President Donald Trump’s nominees for top Pentagon jobs after Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) had put a stop to the process as a way to force the administration to reveal more information about its Afghanistan strategy.  The committee has scheduled to hold confirmation hearings for a total of eight prospective defense officials. McCain also said he doesn’t want Trump to nominate any more industry officials for military jobs. More than a dozen of the positions are still waiting for a formal nomination from the White House. (Stars and Stripes)

• The House Veterans Affairs Committee said it wants the Department of  Veterans Affairs to share key planning documents as it implements a new electronic health record. Committee Chairman Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Tim Walz  (D-Minn.) introduced the Veterans Electronic Health Record Modernization Oversight Act, requiring VA to tell Congress about significant cost increases, scheduling delays or data breaches. VA is in the final stages of negotiating its contract with Cerner Corporation for the same electronic health records system used by the Defense Department. (House VA Committee)

• The Office of Personnel Management unveiled new guidance to help agencies enhance their existing talent management and succession planning programs. In theory, agencies are already required to have a process to recruit, promote and retain quality talent. But nearly two-thirds of departing senior executives told OPM their agencies had done no formal succession planning before they left government service.  (Federal News Radio)

• Census Bureau officials have voiced concerns about the potential for under-counting the number of Hispanics in the upcoming 2020 census. The concerns follow revelations from Census Bureau field staff of an increasing number of people raising concerns about whether data on illegal immigrants will remain confidential. Mikelyn Meyers, a Census research socio-linguist, reported a rise in so-called unusual respondent behaviors. The behaviors surfaced at last week’s meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations. (Census Bureau)

• Twenty-two open government organizations have filed a petition for rule-making, asking the Office of Management Budget and the Justice Department to finalize a policy tied to the Freedom of information Improvement Act. The policy requires agencies to post FOIA responses online. The open government groups said the policy was well on its way to completion, but has been stalled by the Trump Administration.  DoJ said it was still studying the impact such a ruling would have. (Federal News Radio)

• Rep.  Ralph Abraham (R-La.) has backed off from his plan to give the National Institute of Standards and Technology a larger role in federal cybersecurity oversight. Abraham has amended his NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Assessment, and Auditing Act of 2017. Instead of mandating NIST perform audits of agency cyber postures, the bill would require NIST to provide guidance to agencies to implement its cybersecurity framework. It also would direct NIST to work more closely with the IT community to evaluate agency cyber practices. The bill is out of committee, but not yet approved by the full House.  (Congress.gov)

• The State Department has issued a “sources sought notice” requesting responses from small businesses about their interest in and capabilities for delivering operations maintenance and platform engineering services. Calling it market research, and not a contract solicitation, State’s Bureau of Information Resource Management said it wants to know how small businesses can help in areas ranging from security and compliance support, to backup solutions and cloud technology in support its regional data centers. (FedBizOpps)

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