NASCIO Releases Federal Priorities: Cybersecurity, FirstNet, and Collaboration on IT are Essential for States

WASHINGTON, D.C., Thursday, January 23 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officer’s (NASCIO) released its 2014 federal advocacy priorities today. NASCIO’s advocacy goals for 2014 include: collaborating with the federal government on cybersecurity to secure the public sector; building a nationwide public safety broadband network; pushing greater information sharing among government entities; and, implementation of grant guidance reform.

The 2014 Federal Advocacy Priorities are now available https://www.nascio.org/advocacy/current/.

NASCIO’s 2014 advocacy goals are supported by four key issues that must be addressed to succeed in these areas: maturing identity management, building the public sector IT workforce, promoting common data standards, and collaboration on broadband.

“Information Technology is a rapidly evolving field,” explained NASCIO President Craig Orgeron, chief information officer for the state of Mississippi. “While progress was made in 2013 with the release of federal grant guidance reform and a sweeping Executive Order on cybersecurity, there is still a long road ahead. Congress has yet to act on this vital issue, and the Administration must continue to work with state partners to modernize and secure government information technology.”

State CIOs are also looking to continue their collaboration with the FirstNet Authority, responsible for building a nationwide public safety network for our first responders, and other federal partners, on building a nationwide public safety broadband communications network. “NASCIO hopes building a business plan with the states will be the number one priority for FirstNet in 2014,” said Mitch Herckis, director of Government Affairs for NASCIO. “It is the missing keystone and necessary next step towards the roll out of our nation’s largest infrastructure project since the Interstate System.”

NASCIO also hopes to highlight the need to build information sharing procedures and policies at all levels. Projects such as implementation of the voluntary cybersecurity framework and FirstNet will require a major effort to create consensus on how and when information is shared between government entities and private sector partners. Congress, the administration, state governments, and private sector partners will all need to work in partnership to build common languages and solutions in this field.