{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://connolly.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=701", "Nextgov: Federal IT Overhaul Included in Defense Bill, Headed for Vote", "2014-12-03", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Gerald Connolly", "C001078", "connolly.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The bipartisan Federal Information Technology Reform Act -- which aims to upgrade the government's creaky process for purchasing and building IT systems -- has made it past intense House-Senate negotiations and will be included in the compromise version of the Fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act unveiled by lawmakers late Tuesday evening. Read more.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n      Nextgov: Federal IT Overhaul Included in Defense Bill, Headed for Vote  By Jack MooreThe biggest legislative overhaul in nearly 20 years to the way the federal government buys information technology has cleared a key hurdle and is headed for votes in both houses of Congress.\u00a0The bipartisan Federal Information Technology Reform Act -- which aims to upgrade the government\u2019s creaky process for purchasing and building IT systems -- has made it past intense House-Senate negotiations and will be included in the compromise version of the Fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act unveiled by lawmakers late Tuesday evening.The House is expected to vote on the annual defense policy bill as early as Thursday.FITARA, as the bill is known, was first introduced by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Gerry Connolly, a Democratic member of the committee from Virginia, in spring 2013 and gained greater urgency in the wake of the HealthCare.gov debacle last fall.Agency CIOs Get Boost  Among the bill's most significant measures is an enhancement of the role of agency-level chief information officers. Under the legislation, agency CIOs would be granted a \u201csignificant role\u201d in programming, budgeting and decision-making related to IT management and would have a say-so in their agency\u2019s annual IT budget requests.The legislation would specifically bar agencies from signing any contracts for IT or IT services unless the agency CIO has signed off on the deals. The bill similarly bars agencies from reprogramming IT funds without CIO approval.The compromise version doesn\u2019t limit the CIO title to a single official, but the main agency CIO would have the authority to approve the appointment of any other agency officials -- at the component or bureau level, for example -- who have a similar title or carry out the function of a CIO.\u00a0CIOs would also be held to account for managing risk in their IT portfolios. The Office of Management and Budget would require agencies to publicly post a list of each of their major IT investments, including both new investments and existing systems. The publicly released data must include data on the cost, schedule and performance of each of the agency\u2019s IT investments, categorized by agency CIOs based on risk.For investments found to be high risk, CIOs will be required to consult with OMB on root causes and how to address them. OMB will be required to report the outcome of these review sessions to Congress.If, a year after the initial review, the investment is still rated as high risk, the law directs the OMB director to \u201cdeny any request for additional development, modernization or enhancement funding for the investment\u201d until the CIO determines the root causes of the cost overruns or schedule slips \u201cand there is sufficient capability to deliver the remaining planned increments within the planned cost and schedule,\u201d according to the bill.Data Center Consolidation, DOD Cloud Migration Also Included  The enhancement of the CIO role, it should be noted, generally would not apply to the Defense Department. At the Pentagon, for example, the DOD CIO would not formally approve the department\u2019s IT budget request but would instead make recommendations to the defense secretary.Similarly, the DOD CIO alone would not conduct review sessions regarding the risk of their IT investments. Instead, the CIO would consult with the department\u2019s deputy chief management officer and the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. The review sessions would only apply to DOD\u2019s business systems, not\u00a0 its national security systems, according to the bill.The bill would also codify into law Obama administration efforts to close and consolidate federal data centers, spur the Pentagon\u2019s shift to cloud computing and a five-year plan to expand the use special cadres of\u00a0 IT acquisition experts.The House has twice voted to approve federal procurement reform. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a version of the bill last spring.  An effort to include IT reform in last year\u2019s defense policy bill fell short.  \u00a0http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2014/12/federal-it-overhaul-included-defense-bill-headed-vote/100313/?oref=ng-HPtopstory", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://connolly.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=701"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0536059271544218, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}