Short Takes – 9-13-25

EHR Interoperability May Be Coming Closer to Reality. MedPageToday.com article. Pull quote: “"The challenge is that often you need to interface with an existing electronic medical record," noted Newsom, who is now a managing director at the healthcare consulting firm Avalere. "For example, a doctor may be using Oracle Health -- which used to be Cerner -- or Epic Systems, but those tools themselves may be missing things like a real-time prescription drug benefit tool. They then have to contract with another vendor to create that tool, which has to interface with that electronic medical record and fit into their day-to-day workflow. And that's not easy to do."” No mention of inevitable cybersecurity issues.

Agency Information Collection Activities: Solicitation of Proposal Information for Award of Public Contracts, 700-24, 700-25. Federal Register DHS 30-day ICR notice. Summary: “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) collects information, when necessary, when inviting firms to submit bids, proposals, and offers for public contracts for supplies and service. Using solicitation methods such as Requests for Proposals (RFP), Requests for Information (RFI), and Broad Agency Announcements (BAA), the Government requests information from prospective offerors such as pricing information, delivery schedule compliance, and evidence that the offeror has the resources (both human and financial) to accomplish requirements. The information collection is necessary for compliance with the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation (HSAR), 48 CFR Chapter 30, and the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, 15 U.S.C. 628.”

Elected officials wonder whether to continue in-person town halls: 'How can we?' Politico.com article. Pull quote: “Republicans have tended to denigrate the town hall protests as the work of liberal activists who do not reflect the true sentiment in GOP districts and have kept others who attend from participating civilly. Some have asserted, without evidence, that the protesters have been paid to disrupt the events, while some have blamed social media for encouraging the disruptions.”

‘Don't even bother dealing with them,’ Trump says of Democrats’ shutdown demands. Politico.com article. Pull quote: ““We have to get Republican votes. That’s all,” Trump claimed. Pressed about the 60-vote threshold, Trump responded: “No. We’re gonna do a — probably a continuing resolution, or we’re gonna do something. So we’re gonna do something,” he said.”

CISA work not ‘degraded’ by Trump administration cuts, top agency official says. CyberScoop.com article. Pull quote: ““We have exceedingly strong relationships with” other government agencies and the private sector, Andersen touted. “The level of commitment within this team is second to none, and we’re just going to continue to hone and focus [on] that operational mission of what CISA should be delivering on. We’re going to continue to sort of separate out the fluff, but we are going to take every single dollar, every single resource, every single manpower hour to deliver an even sharper focus on those core capabilities in keeping with what President Trump identified as our administration priorities.”” No look at alternative views from outsiders.

Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show. AP.org article. Pull quote: “Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, an Associated Press investigation found. They sold billions of dollars of technology to the Chinese police, government and surveillance companies, despite repeated warningsfrom the U.S. Congress and in the media that such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious sects and target minorities.”

CISA pushes final cyber incident reporting rule to May 2026. CyberScoop.com article. Pull quote: ““I support the administration’s decision to extend the deadline for CIRCIA’s final rule as long as this additional time is used to properly capture private-sector feedback on the proposed rule’s reporting requirements and ensure the final rule fulfills congressional intent for the law,” he [House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y] said. “I share the concern of many industry stakeholders that CIRCIA should not place duplicative or overly broad requirements on critical infrastructure owners and operators. Doing so could unnecessarily burden America’s cyber professionals as they work to defend our networks from heightened threats.””