I recently finished my fellowship in the Senate via @congressfellows, working for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under Sen. Gary Peters.

I had a fantastic experience working on cybersecurity and tech policy. Here's some of what I worked on: 🧵

Writing the bipartisan Securing Open Source Software Act (S. 4913), which aims to ensure the secure usage of open source in the Federal government by conducting a risk assessment and creating agency open source management practices (incl. a pilot for open source program offices).

The Securing Open Source Software Act was voted unanimously out of committee, and has been endorsed by organizations like Google.

Read the bill: www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4913/text

Coverage: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/22/senators-introduce-bill-protect-open-source-software/

I also worked on areas like memory safety, where modern programming languages can eliminate a large portion of vulnerabilities. This led to a study in the 2023 appropriations bill on memory safety, the first time Congress has talked about memory safety.

Spanning the Committee's portfolio, I also helped put together a hearing on social media’s impact on homeland security.

Watch the hearing: www.hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/social-medias-impact-on-homeland-security

Coverage: slate.com/technology/2022/09/meta-tiktok-youtube-senate-hearing-ron-johnson-josh-hawley-gary-peters.h...

My time on the hill encompassed numerous other areas, including election security, negotiations around USICA/COMPETES and NDAA, and oversight.

Altogether, working on the hill was a tremendously rewarding experience. This was in no small part thanks to the great team at HSGAC, every one of whom was incredibly supportive and working hard to better our country.

I would recommend anyone reading this to consider spending a year crafting policy via @congressfellows. The future of our country depends on it.

Please reach out if you're interested in talking about the fellowship.

Applications are open now! www.techcongress.io/apply-now