Summer Updates at NASCIO (We're Back!)

NASCIO Voices is back! After a short summer hiatus, Amy and Alex return with an update on all things state IT. They kick off with some personal catch-up (including  of the four-legged variety), then dive into NASCIO business: registration is officially open for the NASCIO Annual Conference in San Diego (September 27–30). Alex breaks down the latest from Washington, including advocacy efforts around the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program and the ongoing fight against a proposed federal moratorium on state AI laws. Amy shares the growing trend of states appointing dedicated AI leadership. They wrap things up with book recommendations to round out your summer reading list.

Transcript

Amy Glasscock 0:05

Hi, and welcome to NASCIO Voices, where we talk all things state IT. I'm Amy Glasscock in Lexington, Kentucky.

Alex Whitaker 0:11

And I'm Alex Whitaker in Washington, D.C. In case you didn't notice, we went on a short hiatus in July due to vacations and work travel, but now we are back.

Amy Glasscock 0:19

And it's good to be back, even if I almost don't remember how to record and edit a podcast. Alex, did you go anywhere fun last month?

Alex Whitaker 0:27

Oh no, I don't go anywhere fun. I have small children. That doesn't happen. No, we you know we didn't really last month, but we are getting ready to do uh well that's not totally true. We we went to Colorado for a little bit before our uh journey to where were we? Cincinnati.

Amy Glasscock 0:40

Cincinnati.

Alex Whitaker 0:40

And then in a few weeks we're gonna go hit the beach. So yeah, it's actually been a pretty, pretty fun summer.

Amy Glasscock 0:45

Awesome.

Alex Whitaker 0:46

How about you?

Amy Glasscock 0:46

Yeah, we went out to Southern California, LA, Santa Monica, Universal Studios in Hollywood, and then Disneyland in Anaheim. So definitely the whole thing. Yeah, like my my 11-year-old's dream vacation, I think.

Alex Whitaker 1:01

So I think it's a lot of our dream vacations, even if for those who aren't 11.

Amy Glasscock 1:06

That's right. And then as you mentioned, we were in Cincinnati for the NASCIO leadership summits, which was always fun. So we're back now and gearing up for our next travel stuff.

Alex Whitaker 1:16

Amy, ask ask me how much skyline chili I had.

Amy Glasscock 1:18

How much skyline chili did you have?

Alex Whitaker 1:19

Zero.

Amy Glasscock 1:20 Amy Glasscock 1:20

Zero gross. I love Cincinnati. I just can't do the chili. I know. Yeah. I do like chili, but maybe not that kind of maybe not my favorite. But I do love some graters ice cream. And it has some of that.

Alex Whitaker 1:32

Oh, yeah, yeah. So Cincinnati has many wonderful things.

Amy Glasscock 1:35

Yes, absolutely. And also, my big news is that we got a dog since we last recorded, I guess. So he's laying behind me, little Velcro dog. Name is Graham. Graham, okay. Graham like the.

Alex Whitaker 1:46

And where did you guys get the name Graham?

Amy Glasscock 1:48

My daughter named him because he is tan like a Graham cracker. So Yeah.

Alex Whitaker 1:53

I like it. All right.

Amy Glasscock 1:55

All right. So anyway, we thought it would be a good opportunity as we jump back in to kind of give an update on what's going on at NASCIO, what we've been up to, what's on the horizon. And first of all, we have to mention that registration is open now for the NASCIO annual conference in San Diego.

Alex Whitaker 2:12

Yeah, it is a little bit earlier than usual this year. It's September 27th through 30th, which my wife and I realized yesterday when we in the morning bought Hamilton tickets in New York on the 27th. And then realized fortunately the people in Broadway were very nice and let us switch them. So yes, it is September 27th through the 30th, a little earlier, normally kind of into October. Registration closes on September 21st, though. So make sure you register by then or you will not be able to attend. There is no on-site registration.

Amy Glasscock 2:40

That's right. And it's a real bummer if you fly all the way to San Diego and can't come to the conference, though. I mean, there are worse places to be for no reason. So there is that.

Alex Whitaker 2:48

For sure, for sure. And you also must be a NASCIO member to register.

Amy Glasscock 2:52

Yep, that's right. So not open to everyone, but if you're a NASCIO member, hope we can see you there.

Alex Whitaker 2:56

Absolutely.

Amy Glasscock 2:57

And I can say one more thing that you can look forward to. There will be the release of our 2026 State CIO survey at the conference. So NASCIO policy staff are hard at work drafting this survey. It will be released then, and we will have all new data related to the things that state CIOs are most concerned with, excited about, thinking about, etc.

Speaker 1 3:18

Yeah.

Amy Glasscock 3:18

Yeah. So shifting from conference stuff a bit, Alex, I would love to hear what's been going on with government affairs.

Alex Whitaker 3:25

Yeah, sure. So it has been busy the last few weeks as the Congress has gotten ready to go on an August recess. In addition to the recess, we have several primaries across the country today. But really, also they're just gearing up for the November elections. They will be back in session before November elections. But really, um, I think elections are going to be taking up not just their time, but we'll release a lot, you're gonna see a lot of messaging and a lot of bills that are um, you know, may have impact. And you will you will not see some bills that will have impact on the election. They'll be holding those till later in the year. But um still a lot going on. A few weeks ago, NASCIO led a group of state and local organizations um in sending a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee, um, Homeland Security Appropriations Committee and Appropriations Leadership, again requesting support for state and local cybersecurity grant program. Um, you know, again, NASCIO continues to advocate on that. We know it's not a silver bullet to all of the state and locals' funding woes, but it's something we have um believed to be a very important. Um unfortunately, unlike previous CRs and the government shutdown agreement bill from last year, SLCGP extension was not included in the current Senate version of the CR. I don't want folks to worry too much. We are, you know, still looking at ways to get it in there, and also, you know, it's kind of questionable, depending on who you act uh ask, um, whether it's actually needed in the CR because DHS still believes it is kind of the authority to release money for the existing program. But, you know, we do think it's important to include those to show Congress's intent and belief that it is an important program. So we'll continue working on that. And and additionally, you know, that doesn't suspend our efforts to focus on FY27 appropriations for it and a long-term extension overall. So a lot of work still do on SLCGP, and that's something we're gonna, you know, obviously keep working on. And then, you know, it's kind of just the general Washington stuff, making sure that members are educated about our priorities, working with the Trump administration to figure out what theirs are and what the funding situation is. So even though it's August, and as Amy and I are are both always ready to remind people, it's not a vacation for Congress. They are working in their districts, there's still a lot going on. So we'll keep pushing a lot of kind of what we're doing. So that's that's a lot of kind of what's going on in Washington.

Amy Glasscock 5:35

Great. Yeah, I did have thank you for that update. And I was sort of thinking ahead to my next comment, but sort of one of the other big things I've been working on this summer is just sort of organizing this group of state chief AI officers or state AI directors, and you know, not in necessarily a formal capacity, but we've just kind of been adding to our list of states that have someone or at least somebody that's kind of been tasked with leading AI. And we did get that group together before the Midyear conference this spring. But you know, there's like we've got forty-something states on our list now, and maybe like twenty-five or so actually have AI in their title. So, you know, something that we thought was like very rare, and just a handful of these folks a couple of years ago has become something that more and more states are leaning toward. And I'll tell you, I'm updating that list like every week with new people that have been hired to to do the AI thing for a state.

Alex Whitaker 6:28

So Yeah, well, better than you than me, because I'm lousy at updating lists. But that that does remind me of something I should mention. You know, I think it's indicative of what states obviously are doing in the AI space by having those people. And I will quickly revisit uh an issue that's been coming up for NASCIO, and that is the proposed moratorium on state executive orders and laws about AI. There is another attempt to pass that. NASCIO was pretty instrumental in defeating it twice last year. But Senator Cruz is is is pretty adamant about getting it included in an AI package that he has is looking at. My understanding though is that they are still, they being you know folks in the Senate, far from agreement on what that's gonna look like. So plans to mark up an AI bill, really an AI AI package, were kicked um to a few weeks from now. So all that is to say, NASCIO is still, you know, watching that very carefully and making sure that you know we're we're aware of what's going on with it.

Amy Glasscock 7:21

Great, yeah. Appreciate all your hard work on that too. Yeah. All right, well, awesome. So I was thinking to wrap this episode up instead of a regular lighting round, since it's just us, I thought we could each share one book or TV show recommendation that we have enjoyed this summer. So you go first.

Alex Whitaker 7:38

I love it. Okay, let's see. Books. Let's see. I just finished. Oh gosh. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you two. I so I I haven't told people, but I'm trying to I'm trying to read 75 books this year. So I know I'm I'm at 42. I'm I'm pretty sure.

Amy Glasscock 7:51

That's amazing.

Alex Whitaker 7:52

But I thank you. But I would say Ken by Tyari Jones was really good. I just finished that, and I read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans because my mom kept insisting that I read it. So those those are the two I've really liked.

Amy Glasscock 8:04

Are you uh audiobook listener at all? Just plain reading.

Alex Whitaker 8:10

I don't I don't shame audiobook listeners. My wife does and is adamant that those don't count. So I think that's crazy, but I I have been reading them, just you know, actual with with my eyes.

Amy Glasscock 8:20

Kindle or hard copy?

Alex Whitaker 8:22

Both. Yeah. I I tend to like during the day if I have some time, I'll read a hard copy, but at night uh I'll do the Kindle.

Amy Glasscock 8:28

Okay, yeah. Sometimes I'll be reading a book and then I'll also have an audiobook going for like walks and like chores and stuff. So yeah. Um yeah, I think it counts. Yeah about you. Okay, so I don't feel like I've read anything that noteworthy this summer, but I will so I'll cheat a little bit and I'll tell you about this like newsletter I discovered. It's called Book Bub, and it sends you so like sometimes you know like a good Kindle book goes on sale for like $1.99 or something like that. That is what this is. And so, you know, sometimes it's books I've heard of, sometimes it's books I haven't heard of. So I just keep like buying really interesting sounding books for my Kindle for like a couple dollars here and there. Sometimes they're free. So yeah. So Book Bub highly recommended if you are an ebook user. So yeah.

Alex Whitaker 9:12

Well, do you do Libby? Do you know what Libby is? Yeah, okay, yeah.

Amy Glasscock 9:15

I always check there first, see if I can get a book and do, yeah, mostly Kindle books, sometimes audiobooks on there. So cool.

Alex Whitaker 9:22

Well, we're this is a great pod. We're giving people a lot of advice.

Amy Glasscock 9:25

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, Libby's great. It hooks up with your your local library so you can check out digital books and things. Yeah.

Alex Whitaker 9:32

Cool. All right. Well, that was great. That's that's I think that's what's going on at NASCIO.

Amy Glasscock 9:37

Yep. All right.

Alex Whitaker 9:38

Thanks again for listening to NASCIO Voices. NASCIO Voices is a production of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers or NASCIO. Learn more at our new and approved website, which is at NASCIO.org.

Amy Glasscock 9:49

We'll be back in two weeks with regular scheduling, and you can look forward to interviews, deep dives, overviews, and of course, lightning rounds.