Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
Top Democrats in the House and Senate have joined a growing call for President Donald Trump to be removed from office immediately, accusing the president of fomenting Wednesday’s violence at the U.S. Capitol.
President-elect Joe Biden is pressuring on Congress to quickly confirm his nominees for national security roles, but it appears the congressional calendar won’t permit his pick for defense secretary to be in place on Day One.
The House’s top Republican appropriator, Rep. Kay Granger, has tested positive for coronavirus after arriving in Washington to begin the new session of Congress.
The annual defense authorization bill has hit yet another procedural roadblock, this time over an unrelated fight over stimulus checks related to the ongoing pandemic.
Suspected Russian hackers' ability to burrow into Pentagon networks through lateral movement after the SolarWinds breach poses tremendous challenges for the department.
Some major defense contractors use the compromised software at the center of the breach, but figuring out whether hackers got inside their systems will be difficult and time-consuming.
Congress is rocketing to pass a massive $2.3 trillion spending package by Dec. 21 at 11:59 p.m. that includes pandemic relief and federal spending, with $696 billion for the Pentagon.
"We’ve got to get this defense bill passed because there’s so much to help us defend ourselves,” said Sen. Angus King, co-chair of the Cyber Solarium Commission.
The Senate minority leader said the U.S. needs to "respond in kind" to a newly disclosed cyberespionage campaign that targeted government agencies by exploiting SolarWinds' network tool.