Posts Tagged: "Senator Jon Tester"

Senate Commerce Committee Holds Hearing on Transportation of Tomorrow Including Unmanned Shipping and Hyperloop Tech

One difficulty holding back the further implementation of hyperloop infrastructure is the fact that the new mode of transportation doesn’t fit neatly into existing regulatory framework. In response to a question from Sen. Thune on that subject, Raycroft noted that hyperloop systems were currently under the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This is despite the fact that certain aspects of hyperloop technology don’t fit neatly into the FRA’s regulatory framework for railroads, including vehicle bodies which are more similar to commercial aircraft. Raycroft said that engagement between the FRA and other agencies within the Department of Transportation could help speed the regulatory process while ensuring that passenger safety remained a top priority. In response to a later question from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Raycroft said that, at the current pace, hyperloop technologies would be ready for widespread passenger use during the mid-2020s.

Interoperability in electronic health records between VA, DoD the subject of Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing

The VA announced this April that its EHR system had reached certification for interoperability, months after the DoD had reached the same milestone, but investigators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reached a different conclusion. A recent GAO report indicated that, although the goal of true interoperability between the agencies can be met within two years according to agency planning, the two systems weren’t truly interoperable… It’s in this environment, heavily tinged by the recent GAO report, that a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations came together to take a closer look at what was being done by the VA and the DoD to reach true interoperability.