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A New Leader On Cyber Security
by Heather Greenfield
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance will have a new leader and priorities for the new Congress. Liz Gasster, CSIA's general counsel, will become executive director on Jan. 1, replacing Paul Kurtz, who has managed CSIA since establishing the group three years ago.
Gasster will take the lead implementing CSIA's priorities next year, including trying to pass federal legislation to ensure the privacy and security of personal information, strengthening the Federal Information Security Management Act, and shaping the cyber-security agenda at the Homeland Security Department.
"During the past months, Liz has worked side-by-side with Paul to achieve the organization's goals, and under her leadership, CSIA will continue our efforts to implement appropriate public policy, effective security technology, high industry standards and support from governments worldwide," said CSIA Chairman John Thompson, chairman & CEO of Symantec Corporation.
Before joining CSIA, Gasster spent 26 years at AT&T, most recently as public policy director and senior attorney for federal government affairs. During her tenure at AT&T, she developed and coordinated policy positions on e-commerce, technology and intellectual property issues.
Kurtz, meanwhile, will go to Good Harbor Consulting as a partner and chief operating officer. "I am delighted to be teaming again with Paul, with whom I have worked for over 20 years in the White House and the State Department," said Good Harbor Chairman Richard Clarke, a former White House cyber-security czar and counter-terrorism adviser.
Kurtz served on the White House Homeland Security Council and before that on the National Security Council as senior director for national security of the office of cyberspace security. He also was a member of the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, where he developed the international component of the national cyber-security strategy.
Rep. Boehlert Gets Science Gig At Think Tank
The retirement of House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert was short-lived. The 70-year-old New York Republican will join the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in January as a visiting scholar.
Boehlert, who is retiring from the House, has served 12 terms in Congress and has chaired the Science Committee since 2001. He will join former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., the center's president and director. Hamilton also is the former vice chairman of the commission established to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In the part-time job at the think tank, Boehlert will join discussions on topics including education, energy, the environment and science.
Boehlert has a reputation as a moderate, particularly on environment and labor issues. His constituents elected Democrat Michael Arcuri, the Oneida County district attorney, as his successor. It is the first time a Democrat will represent that district in 60 years.
While he is not quite ready to retire, Boehlert said he is planning a move to be closer to his grandchildren. Boehlert and his wife, Marianne, will be moving from their home in the Utica, N.Y., suburb of New Haven to Rehoboth Beach, Del., where two of their four children now live.
Senate Expected To Vote On EPA Tech Chief
The Environmental Protection Agency may be getting a new chief information officer now that a lengthy nomination battle appears to have ended.
President Bush nominated Molly O'Neill in March to serve as the agency's CIO. The Senate is likely to approve her nomination now that New Jersey Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez have removed a procedural "hold" they had on it.
The senators blocked the nomination to protest a move by the EPA to relax reporting rules for companies that release chemicals into the environment. In a statement, Lautenberg said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson vowed in a letter not to move forward with a proposal to allow companies releasing chemicals to report every two years instead of annually.
"It is welcome news that the Bush administration is throwing out part of this bad idea, but they still need to get rid of the rest," Lautenberg said.
Linda Travers has been the acting CIO since December 2005. Kim Nelson left the job last December to take a position with a private company.
Meanwhile, another former chief technology officer at the EPA has been hired by McDonald Bradley, an information technology provider to the government. Debra Stouffer will become the firm's new senior vice president of the civilian business section.
Stouffer also was the deputy CIO at the Housing and Urban Development Department. Most recently, Stouffer served as senior vice president at Digital Management and before that as vice president at BAE Systems IT.
"I am excited to be working with the executive team to provide our solutions throughout the federal civilian agencies," Stouffer said.
Severance For The Severed GOP Aides
One item of business during the ongoing post-election session of Congress will be severance pay for all of the outgoing Republican staffers who lost their jobs as a result of the election.
Democrats have yet to release details of the severance bill that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will propose. A report in The Hill said it is uncertain whether Pelosi will propose such legislation, but many say they think she will want to avoid being labeled the Grinch this Christmas.
Some 21 Republican incumbents lost their seats. The normal career route for many ex-Hill staffers is to lobbying firms. But with the Democratic takeover of both chambers, most lobbying groups are scrambling to hire Democrats, not Republicans.
Senate staffers already have an outlined benefits package due to legislation that Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., offered two years ago. Thanks to that resolution, S. Res. 478, aides of any senators who lose re-election can get their full salaries for two months of the new Congress.
Nobel Laureates Welcomed At White House
Vice President Richard Cheney and John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, led a White House ceremony last week to honor the 2006 Nobel laureates in science.
The five American winners in the fields of chemistry, medicine and physics completed the first U.S. sweep of the science awards since 1983. They are among more than 230 U.S. scientists who have won the Nobel Prize since it was first bestowed in 1901.
Andrew Fire, a professor of pathology and genetics at Stanford University, and Craig Mello, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts at Worcester, shared the Nobel Prize in medicine.
The Nobel Prize in physics went to John Mather, a senior astrophysicist, Goddard fellow and senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center, and George Smoot, an astrophysics and cosmology professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Roger Kornberg, a professor of cell biology at Stanford University, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
"With continued investment in scientific research, such as the president's American competitiveness initiative, I am confident that Americans will continue to be contenders for the Nobel prizes in the years to come," Marburger said.
Quote Of The Week
"Having a MySpace profile is great, but it's kind of a like [having] a phone and voter file and not using them together."
-- Matt Burgess, an associate with the media-consulting firm of MacWilliams, Robinson & Partners discussing online techniques of likely 2008 presidential candidates in The Hill.
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