Stuck with old technologies and need a jumpstart to the new age? Then you’ll want to know about the IT resolving fund worth $3.1 billion for IT modernization. The bill was introduced was first proposed by Federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott and introduced by into the House by Maryland minority whip representative Steny Hoyer on April 11th, 2016. The fund, H.R. 4897, aims to distribute money through the GSA to agencies for the revamp of old, legacy technology in an effort to bolster cybersecurity across agencies.
Several agencies currently use technologies that are extremely outdated, increasing the susceptibility of attack. Agencies that participate will have to reimburse the fund for any product and/or service the agency uses to modernize their technologies. The fund gained momentum in the light of FY 2015 statistics from GAO, which showed that 70% of the total $80 billion spent on IT, approximately $61.5 billion, was spent solely on operations and maintenance. Agencies that still use outdated and vulnerable technologies, such as the Pentagon using floppy disks in its nuclear arms management system, cite lack of funding. 550 unsupported software and/or operating systems plague agencies in status quo with each agency hiring a total of 3,400 IT professionals who specialize in bygone languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN to maintain legacy systems.
This fund, however, may be in danger. As the November elections loom in the near future, Congress is still undecided on the outcome of this bill. In addition, the fact that agencies must have their desired technological changes pre-approved by the GSA is a definite impediment to agencies taking advantage of the fund. The bill currently has 20 cosponsors. The bill faces definite opposition from the Republicans in the House. However, Jason Chaffetz, Republican Rep. from Utah and the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is on edge about the bill and has been reported saying “We have a $4 trillion budget, it’s way too much. We will have to give up something else in order to do something that we know will produce results. So, I’m going to work with the Democrats, and have been, to try to find a good, plausible solution that will actually work.”
If passed, this game-changing bill puts agencies on the path to modernization, thus averting exorbitant spending in O&M.
