The National Institute of Standards and Technology wants feedback on the latest draft of its IT security and privacy controls. This fourth revision of NIST’s “Security and Privacy Controls” has been two years in the making. It now covers insider threats, supply chain risk and a number of cybersecurity issues. Ron Ross is a fellow at NIST and provides details.

When the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee calls you in, it’s usually not because you’re going to get a medal for a job well done. The current chairman, Republican Darrell Issa of California, has been an activist, but also highly partisan in the view of some colleagues. Now he’s announced plans for a more collaborative approach to running the committee. What’s going on? For some clues we turned to one-time committee chair, former Congressman Tom Davis of Northern Virginia.

You and your federal employee colleagues are hungry for answers about how sequestration will affect you. The White House said the cuts would likely include hundreds of thousands of furloughs. Maryland Senator Ben Cardin was at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. on Friday to talk to employees about budget cuts.

In his confirmation hearing for CIA director, John Brennan tried to answer a lot of questions about drone operations. Someone who didn’t know better might have thought the CIA is another special operations branch of the military. In fact, the CIA is two organizations in one. Philip Lohaus is a research fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and former Defense Department analyst who has studied and blogged about how the CIA is two organizations in one.

In just a little over two weeks, the Treasury Department will issue its last paper benefits check. The move to E-payments will be complete. Any recipient of Social Security, VA or other federal benefits who hasn’t chosen an electronic alternative will be in violation of the law on March 1. Wanda Rogers is Deputy Commissioner at the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service and she told us about the transition and www.godirect.gov.