A look at the week of September 19 in public advocacy for the IT channel:

This week, agencies report doubts about the White House “cloud first” policy as cyberattacks continue to be a rising threat.  Government Health IT takes an in-depth look at the joint electronic health record (EHR) project that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are working on.  As the job market in the U.S. continues to struggle, lawmakers consider programs to attract foreign investment and entrepreneurs.

Agencies Report Concerns with Cloud Migration — Politico reports that federal agencies — ranging from the Defense and State departments to the National Institutes of Health — are having second thoughts about moving government secrets and essential functions to the Web in the face of a growing number of cyberattacks from online assailants. The agencies worry that a White House policy instituted late last year requiring them to move services to cloud computing puts their concerns over cybersecurity second.


DOD and VA Face Challenges in Open Source EHR Project — The joint electronic health record (EHR) project that the Department of Defense and VA are creating is the largest and possibly most challenging open source project a federal health agency has undertaken, says Government Health IT. Managing the demands of two departments currently running on different records systems, integrating private providers, and working with the open source code that will sprout around the next-generation EHR is complicated, but the most difficult part might be creating a climate similar to Linux, in which the VA, DoD, partners, vendors and private providers all share code under an open source license. 


Lawmakers Praise Visa Programs to Attract Foreign Investors, Entrepreneurs — Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration subpanel praised two visa programs that could create thousands of jobs in the US, reports The Hill. The proposals are backed by many tech companies, which rely heavily on foreign investors and entrepreneurs.  The EB-5 investor visa program aims to attract foreign investment to the US but is set to expire in 2012. The second program, the start-up visa program, is part of a bill introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), which would encourage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in this country.