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   Four senators have asked Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), the committee’s ranking member, to mark up a bipartisan bill that would allow federal agencies to establish their own working capital funds to upgrade their information technology systems. The lawmakers said in a letter published Wednesday the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 also seeks to create a centralized modernization fund within the Treasury Department that would be managed by a board of federal IT experts. They said reporting the proposed legislation out of the Senate panel would help advance national security objectives. Sen. Jerry

For members of Congress worried about the rising cost of forest fires, a tone of desperation may be settling in. A sense of urgency — and unconventional thinking — around tackling wildfires on federal land were on display yesterday at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Forest Service budget. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a senior appropriator, said he may try to block the agency’s practice of borrowing funds from other programs to fight the blazes. And Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), whose state has one national forest, said she would be willing to engage one of progressives’ sworn enemies —

House and Senate lawmakers are hoping to push legislation to replace recently repealed Obama-era internet privacy regulations, a move by the Federal Communications Commission that has led to a tide of consumer complaints. At least two Senate bills are being drafted to address the regulatory void and public outcry created last month when congressional Republicans repealed internet privacy rules issued by the FCC last year, using the Congressional Review Act. With the repeal, internet service providers such as Comcast and Verizon can use and sell their customers’ online internet activity for marketing purposes unless consumers specifically request to opt out.

The Senate backers of the $500 million Modernizing Government Technology Act are urging a key committee to take action on the bill. The MGT Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives on a voice vote and which figured into the IT section of the Trump administration’s budget, is currently awaiting action in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), both on the Appropriations committee, sent a letter May 24 to the chairman and ranking member of HSGAC, urging them to markup the MGT Act and forward it for consideration by

Congress members from both parties participated in a celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month taking place in the Capitol. The event Wednesday included remarks by Sen. Sherrod Brown; D-Ohio; Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.; Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Rep. John Faso, R-N.Y.; Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III, D-Mass.; Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill.; as well as the congresswoman who in her first term authored the 2006 law creating Jewish American Heritage month, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. The

The U.S. Department of Education will now reconsider the University of Montana’s grant application for a low-income college prep program. UM’s application for Upward Bound requested just under $2 million to fund the program for 75 students from this year through 2022. But it was rejected because of a technicality; one page was single-spaced, instead of double-spaced. That caught the attention of Montana’s senior senator, Jon Tester: “It was disbelief. I mean, really – government at its worst,” Tester said. Seventy-seven applications from other universities were rejected for similar technicalities. The move drew bipartisan criticism. Republican Senator Steve Daines signed a