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Today on the Daily Scoop podcast from the Scoop News Group, Bills to fund the TMF and overhaul IT procurement move forward in the House, and Senator Maria Cantwell claims that telecom companies blocked the release of a key salt typhoon report. It's Thursday, February 5, 2026. Welcome to the Daily Scoop podcast, where you hear the latest news and trends facing government leaders. I'm the host of the Daily Scoop Podcast, Billy Mitchell. Thanks so much for joining me. Now let's dive into the day's top headlines. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced several tech related bills Wednesday, including legislation to strengthen the Technology Modernization Fund and reform federal IT procurement. The TMF, which was created by law in 2017 to fund tech modernization projects across agencies, has been the subject of much hand wringing in govtech circles after Congress let the funding vehicle expire late last year. The Modernizing Government Technology Reform act, however, would get the TMF back on track, reauthorizing the TMF and its governing board through 2032. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican of South Carolina who chairs House Oversight's Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation subcommittee, said it was her privilege to work with former Representative Gerry Connolly on the bill before he died of cancer last May, calling the late Virginia Democrat One of TMF's strongest supporters and a good faith partner on the bill. Representative Chantel Brown, Democrat of Ohio, ranking member of the Cybersecurity subcommittee and a co sponsor of the TMF bill, said extending the TMF is critical to ensuring federal agencies, many of which still rely on outdated IT systems, can modernize their infrastructure and defend against growing cyber threats. In addition to reauthorizing the tmf, the bill would require agencies to fully reimburse the fund at levels that ensure it remains operational through 2032. The legislation also requires agencies to pay back administrative fees and create inventories of their legacy it. The bill also included an amendment from Representative James Walkinshaw, Democrat of Virginia and Connally's longtime chief of staff that would require the Government Accountability Office to issue biannual reports on how TMF funds have been used to address legacy IT projects. The watchdog deems high priority. Improving government IT systems is also top of mind in the federal Improvement in Technology Procurement act, which advanced out of committee by a 42 to 0 margin. The legislation would streamline the federal procurement process for small businesses and push federal contracting officers to examine larger acquisitions where the potential for waste, fraud and abuse is high. According to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the Kentucky Republican noted that the bill would increase the micro purchase threshold from $10,000 to $25,000 and raised the simplified acquisition threshold from $250,000 to $500,000. Now in other news, More than a year after national security officials revealed that Chinese hackers had systematically infiltrated US Telecommunications networks, the top Senate Democrat on the committee overseeing the industry is calling for hearings with executives from the nation's biggest telecom companies. In a public letter released earlier this week, Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, called for the CEOs of Verizon and AT&T to appear before Congress and explain how the hacking group known as Salt Typhoon breached their networks, as well as what steps they've taken to prevent another intrusion. Cantwell wrote to Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who is chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. For months I have sought specific documentation from AT&T& Verizon that would purportedly corroborate their claims that their networks are now secure from this attack. Unfortunately, both AT and T and Verizon have chosen not to cooperate, which raises serious questions about the extent to which Americans who use these networks remain exposed to to unacceptable risk. Salt Typhoon's intrusion into telecom networks exposed major security weaknesses and put sensitive communications and data belonging to US Politicians and policymakers at risk. The federal government has done little since to hold the industry publicly accountable. Congress has neither proposed or passed meaningful legislation to address the issue. While a handful of federal departments and agencies began public regulatory and oversight reviews, most of those efforts have been shut down or rolled back. An investigation by the Cybersafety Review Board at the Department of Homeland Security into the intrusions was abruptly stopped when the Trump administration eliminated the advisory board. One former member remarked recently that the failure to finish the investigation ranked among her biggest career regrets. Weeks before President Joe Biden left office, his Federal Communications Commission issued emergency regulations aimed at holding telecom companies legally responsible under federal wiretapping laws for security their communications. The rules would have also required carriers to file annual certifications with the FCC confirming they have cyber risk management plans in place, that certification would include addressing common security gaps like lack of multi factor authentication that are widely believed to have been exploited by Salt Typhoon. While outgoing chair Jessica Rosenwersel told CyberScoop previously the rules were badly needed to hold telecoms accountable for their cybersecurity. Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner and Rosenworld's successor as chair, rescinded those rules, arguing they were unnecessary because the FCC and telecoms could work together voluntarily on cybersecurity. Another commissioner Ana Gomez told cyberscoop she had seen no evidence that her agency had been meeting with telecoms on the issue. For more news at the intersection of the federal government and technology, make sure to visit fedscoop.com foreign.