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Congress quizzes GSA’s Roth over IT Modernization Fund
255MHz of spectrum is being sought for 5G wireless
Bipartisan skepticism set the tone for a review of the General Services Admin- istration’s funding request, even as most lawmakers acknowledged the need for the sort of legacy system modernization included in the agency’s budget.
The Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes $3.1 bil- lion for a revolving Information Tech- nology Modernization Fund, which GSA would manage.
“I question the proposed $3 billion in mandatory funding and $100 million in discretionary funding — for what exactly, we don’t know — because the administration has not formally transmitted legislative language to the Congress,” Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) said during a Feb. 29 hearing of the House Appropriations Commit- tee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee.
Other lawmakers, including Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), agreed that the governmentwide fund is ill-defined and expressed concern that agencies might use it to dodge the appropria- tions process.
Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), chair- man of the Oversight and Govern- ment Reform Committee’s IT Subcom-
mittee, told FCW that the fund could be an important tool for agencies but stressed the duty agencies have to build modernization planning into their own budgets.
Meant to support $12 billion in mod- ernization projects over 10 years, the fund would largely help agencies get over the large upfront costs that come with an ambitious modernization plan, GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth
broadband, including frequencies currently controlled by federal agencies
ally stemmed from consultations with the Office of Management and Budget after last summer’s federal cybersecu- rity sprint, which highlighted agencies’ widespread reliance on hard-to-secure legacy systems.
The appropriations hearing proved to be gentler than previous discus- sions of the fund. In a Feb. 25 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Chairman Jason
“To suggest we’re just $3 billion away from actually solving this problem is ridiculous.”
told appropriators. Agencies would keep the fund solvent by paying back savings from successful modernizations in five-year terms, she added.
In addition to funding individual agencies’ modernization projects, the fund could help agencies harness shared services or learn from others’ experiences instead of modernizing in agency-segregated silos, Roth said.
She did not provide a detailed answer when asked for the source of the $3.1 billion figure but said it gener-
— REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R-UTAH)
Chaffetz (R-Utah) ripped the funding level as “hogwash” and cited the $80 billion annual price tag of federal IT. “To suggest we’re just $3 billion away from actually solving this problem is ridiculous,” he said.
His committee colleague Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said thorough IT inventories from individual agencies could help the committee get a better sense of the resources that agencies need in order to modernize.
— Zach Noble
FCW CALENDAR
4/7
FCW will honor this year’s Federal 100 award winners — and announce the government and industry Eagles — at the 27th annual awards gala. Washington, D.C.
fcw.com/fed100
4/12 Cybersecurity
Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Maj. Gen. Sarah Zabel of the
Defense Information Systems Agency are among the speakers at FireEye’s forum on “the path to cyber resilience.” Washington, D.C. fcw.com/fireeye
4/13 FITARA
USDA CIO Jonathan Alboum and Transportation
Department CIO Richard McKinney will discuss the tools needed for successful FITARA implementation. Washington, D.C. is.gd/FCW_FITARA
March 30, 2016 FCW.COM 3
UNITED STATES CONGRESS