VIRGINIA — Representative James Walkinshaw, a Democratic congressman from Virginia, announced a comprehensive agenda on Monday to rebuild federal government capacity. His plan focuses on three pillars: talent, technology, and delivery.

Walkinshaw was elected last September to serve the remainder of Representative Gerry Connolly's term. He previously served as Connolly's chief of staff for over a decade. Connolly, who passed away last year, was an original sponsor of the 2014 Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), which established an A to F grading system for agencies' tech modernization efforts. The first FITARA scorecard was released in November 2015 by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Government Accountability Office.

In an interview, Walkinshaw stated he is discussing this agenda with his colleagues. He noted a loss of federal workers, remarking, "We're obviously in this post-DOGE era, where, in my view, a lot of damage has been done, 300,000 federal workers lost." He added that many of these lost staff members possessed experience with technology and an understanding of agency operations.

Walkinshaw indicated that if Democrats secure the House majority in the upcoming midterms, there will be scrutiny of the contracting practices of the current administration. This scrutiny would extend to contracts with the Defense and Homeland Security departments, including those with contractors who donated to projects like the White House ballroom renovation. "Those companies that continued to do things by the book, the way that they did before this administration, maybe they lost some business in the last couple years, but they're going to be happy that they continued to do things by the book," Walkinshaw said. He added, "Those that played by the Trump rules … those companies and the contracts they received are going to face a lot of scrutiny."

Walkinshaw criticized the administration's emphasis on Silicon Valley firms for defense technology. "I do worry that with this administration, especially, there might be too much of a fetishization of a certain kind of company, the Silicon Valley-based startup," he said.

In other efforts related to federal capacity, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) acting director Nick Andersen stated the agency plans to hire approximately 330 people in the coming months. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin indicated last week that the cyber unit requires around 600 hires, and that it might take a year to bring these new hires on board.

Walkinshaw plans to introduce amendments in upcoming appropriations measures to address basic cyberdefense. These amendments are focused on event logging to encourage agencies to record cyber incidents. He and Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, introduced legislation on June 25 to require the Department of Homeland Security to provide lawmakers with a report on identified gaps preventing it from fully meeting event logging requirements.