NASCIO Honors New Hampshire CIO Denis Goulet with 10 Year Service Award

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Lexington, Ky, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) recognizes New Hampshire Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Commissioner Denis Goulet with the Decade of Leadership Award for ten years of service to the State of New Hampshire as the CIO. Goulet joins a prestigious yet small group of CIOs who have reached this milestone.

After a three-decade career in private sector software companies, former Governor Maggie Hassan appointed Goulet commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Information Technology in 2015. His servant, innovative leadership in New Hampshire over the last ten years has allowed for remarkable improvements in the state’s technology. Some of Denis’ notable achievements include crafting New Hampshire’s first IT strategic plan in over a decade, leading New Hampshire IT through uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic, migrating towards more cloud platforms, implementing multi-agency enterprise solutions and significantly improving New Hampshire’s cybersecurity posture while upgrading its network systems and infrastructure.

Denis has also served NASCIO as fiercely as he has served New Hampshire. After serving on the NASCIO Executive Committee for two years, Goulet was elected Vice President, then President of NASCIO in February 2020, brilliantly leading NASCIO through the pandemic. Denis was also awarded NASCIO’s Meritorious Service Award in 2023. Denis currently serves on the NASCIO Executive Committee as Past President.

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
[email protected]

NASCIO Technology Champion Award Honors Brownsville, TX CIO Jorge Cardenas

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Lexington, Ky, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has awarded Jorge Cardenas, Chief Information Officer for the City of Brownsville, Texas, with the association’s 2025 Technology Champion Award. In the award nomination, Cardenas was described as putting a special emphasis on the importance of technology to city operations and citizen experience. He was nominated by Sharon Murphy, Marketing Senior Specialist, NTT DATA.

During Jorge’s three years in Brownsville, he created the city’s first information technology department, updated the city’s network infrastructure to 5G, built out one hundred miles of mid-mile fiber and partnered with an internet service provider to invest in the last mile. As a city that is close to the border of Mexico, there are unique challenges that it must address. The improvements that Jorge has implemented are expected to solve real-time issues like stopping stolen vehicles from crossing the border by using license plate reader technology, detecting unmanned arial vehicles and improving perimeter security at the airport. These updgrades are also expected to attract more businesses to the city, creating job opportunities and fostering economic growth.

NASCIO created the Technology Champion Award in 2003 to recognize outstanding individual contributions to the field of information technology in the public sector. Recipients further NASCIO’s vision of a government in which the public is fully served through the efficient and effective use of technology policy.

Learn more about the NASCIO Technology Champion award and prior recipients at www.nascio.org/awards.

Contact
Meredith Ward
Deputy Executive Director
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
[email protected]

NASCIO Releases Guide to Building a State Privacy Program

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Contact
Amy Glasscock
Program Director, Innovation & Emerging Issues
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
[email protected]

NASCIO Testifies on State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program

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WASHINGTON, DC., Monday, March 31, 2025— Tomorrow, NASCIO Secretary and Treasurer Alan Fuller, CIO for the State of Utah, and Mark Raymond, CIO for the State of Connecticut will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection on the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. They will highlight how the grant has helped states to address critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities and assist local communities in improving their cyber defenses. NASCIO supports reauthorization of this important grant program and looks forward to working with Congress to assist states in protecting critical technology infrastructure.

Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Hearing:
Cybersecurity is Local, Too: Assessing the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program;
Tuesday, April 1st 10:00 – 12:00 pm ET,
310 Cannon House Office Building
Link: https://homeland.house.gov/hearing/cybersecurity-is-local-too-assessing-the-state-and-local-cybersecurity-grant-program/

Contact

Alex Whitaker
Director of Government Affairs
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
[email protected]

NASCIO statement regarding cuts to MS-ISAC funding

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NASCIO statement regarding cuts to MS-ISAC funding:

MS-ISAC has been tremendously beneficial to state and local governments since its inception over 20 years ago. It provides significant, no cost services to state, local, tribal and territorial governments including cyber incident response teams, threat notifications, information sharing and the Nationwide Cybersecurity Review, of which NASCIO is a partner and strong supporter. The MS-ISAC services provided to local, tribal and territorial governments are especially critical as these entities face high threats from bad actors yet generally have no or low budgets to combat cybersecurity threats. 

NASCIO Testifies on AI to VT House Committee

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NASCIO Senior Policy Analyst Amy Glasscock testified at the Vermont House Committee on Energy and Technology hearing on Artificial Intelligence on April 23. A recording of the hearing is available, as is her written testimony.

Watch on Washington – August 19, 2020

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NASCIO Endorses $28 Billion Legislation to Address SLTT IT and Cybersecurity Issues

The bicameral and bipartisan, State and Local IT Modernization and Cybersecurity Act was introduced on August 14. The legislation seeks to provide state and local governments with dedicated grant funding in order to directly respond to IT issues relating to COVID-19, modernize legacy IT systems and to improve their overall cybersecurity resilience.  Full bill text can be found here.

 

NASCIO’s Endorsement Statement:

“On behalf of the nation’s state chief information officers (CIOs), NASCIO sincerely appreciates the introduction of the bipartisan, State and Local IT Modernization and Cybersecurity Act. As states are charged with administering critically important federal programs and benefits, this legislation aims to make significant investments in modernizing state and local IT infrastructure. We also appreciate the sponsors recognition of the vital role of state CIOs and IT agencies, who throughout the ongoing pandemic have continued to experience unprecedented demands to ensure the delivery of timely and critical services to citizens while maintaining and protecting the continuity of government. We look forward to working together with the House and Senate to ensure the passage of the State and Local IT Modernization and Cybersecurity Act.” -Doug Robinson, NASCIO Executive Director

 

Press Coverage of the Legislation can be found here:

The Hill

StateScoop

Watch on Washington – April 1, 2020

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Congress Passes $2 Trillion COVID-19 Stimulus Bill

On Friday, March 27, President Trump signed into law a $2 trillion emergency bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

The $2 trillion package is equal to almost half of the annual federal spending in a year and is the largest relief package Congress has ever passed. The bill will send a $1,200 check to many Americans, create a $377 billion loan program for small businesses and establish a $500 billion lending fund for businesses.

Additionally, the bill provides $150 billion in new, direct aid to states, territories, tribal and local governments by formula and based on population, to be distributed no later than 30 days after the date of enactment.

Coronavirus Impact on Voting and Elections

The CARES Act provides $400 million to the Election Assistance Commission, largely for contingency planning and expanding vote by mail and online voter registration initiatives. Additionally, some election officials are considering using their recently received election security grants, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds, for virus-related election preparations. More to follow as this issue progresses.

Watch on Washington – February 19, 2020

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NASCIO Endorses State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act

On February 10, U.S. Representatives Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and John Katko (R-NY), the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation Subcommittee, along with 12 other members, introduced H.R. 5823, the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act. H.R. 5823 would create a new $400 million annual grant program to state and local governments to improve their cybersecurity posture. The bipartisan legislation, which can be found , would require states to develop cybersecurity response plans that would be submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in order to qualify for the grants. H.R. 5823 would also establish a 15-member State and Local Cybersecurity Resiliency Committee to advise DHS on the efficacy of the grant program. 

Senate Homeland Security Committee Urged to Provide Cybersecurity Resources to State and Local Governments

On February 11, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing titled, “What States, Locals and the Business Community Should Know and Do: A Roadmap for Effective Cybersecurity.” Witnesses for the hearing were Chris Krebs, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Amanda Crawford, Executive Director of the Texas Department of Information Resources and Chris DeRusha, Chief Security Officer in Michigan. All the witnesses agreed that the federal government should dedicate additional resources and expertise to local governments, who have been frequent target of high-profile ransomware attacks. 

Election Websites at Risk
A recent McAfee report found that election websites in more than a dozen battleground states lack basic cybersecurity functions that could allow them to be subject to hacking and misinformation campaigns. The cybersecurity firm found that across the 13 states studied only 54% of county websites had an encrypted front page and only 17% were on the DotGov domain. NASCIO has been a longtime advocate of the  of DotGov. 

NASCIO Endorses State and Local Cyber Improvement Act

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