Randi Parker Posts

This week the Senate “Gang of Eight” released their comprehensive immigration bill titled, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.” This legislation is the result of months of negotiating between Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). As the title of the legislation suggests, the bill ...

A colleague of mine recently told me, “If it isn't in writing, it doesn’t exist.” This holds true when advocating on Capitol Hill. It’s always helpful to have a one-pager or a leave-behind of some kind to give to Hill staff that sums up what you covered in your meeting. In this spirit, I have worked with colleagues internal and external to CompTIA to put together such a document, titled “CompTIA Workforce Priorities,” that we can share with Hill staff during our advocacy visits. You can see it h ...

It’s another beautiful day here in San Francisco and the RSA Conference – an annual information security event held by security solutions provider RSA – is underway with its usual buzz and excitement. So far, it has been a productive few days for CompTIA.We started the week meeting with the Cybersecurity Credentials Collaborative (C3) – a group that we co-founded along with other certifying bodies such as (ISC)2 and GIAC. CompTIA was voted vice chair of the C3 and will be playing an active role ...

Here we go. Again. This is not the first dance for immigration and certainly won’t be the last, but maybe, just maybe, we will actually finish a song this time. It was clear after the 2012 election cycle that immigration was going to be a hot issue and our elected officials have come running out of the gate to tackle it. Here is a recap of the last week: On Monday, January 28, a bipartisan group of eight senators introduced an outline for comprehensive immigration reform. The key is that ...

We may have stepped back from the fiscal cliff – as Congress negotiated an 11th hour deal on taxes at the start of 2013 – but the threat of sequestration still looms. Congress has until March 2, 2013, to work out a deal to avoid automatic across the board budget cuts. If these cuts take place, career and technical education funding could be at risk for a $92 million cut in fiscal year 2013 alone.The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 provides federal funds for ...

With each new session of Congress comes new hope that more will be done, and in a more bipartisan manner, than in the previous session. This is especially true for those with an interest in the American workforce, as several key pieces of legislation that affect it are either long overdue on being reauthorized or are quickly approaching their reauthorization deadline. The following are pieces of legislation to look out for: The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) expired in 2003 and, due to partisan ...

The CompTIA Public Advocacy team wants your input and is forming a working group within CompTIA membership that will focus on workforce development issues.  With a new Congress coming in to town in a few months, we will have an opportunity to solidify our standing as a leader on this issue and there will be a lot for the working group to do!You should join this group if you are interested in the following areas:Cybersecurity Workforce: There is a great deal of collaboration that can be done with ...