Information Technology Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, I introduced the Information Technology Modernization Act, a bill that will make our government more transparent, more efficient, more responsive, and more secure.

Dangerously, many Federal Government agencies, as we have seen, rely on technology systems that are decades old and hinder digital interagency collaboration. As a result, government services are less efficient than they could be, and Americans' personal data is put at higher risk every year that goes by without critical system upgrades. This was the experience for almost 2 million employees of our Federal Government.

I am partnering with the White House and U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott to propose a new way to invest in upgrading the government technology infrastructure that serves the American people and this institution.

My bill authorizes a one-time investment of $3 billion into a revolving fund that will be overseen by an independent review board. The fund will invest in large-scale, rapid systems upgrades deemed to be in the greatest need and that would provide the greatest impact on serving the American people.

Once an upgrade is completed, the receiving agency will then begin paying back the fund over time, using the savings achieved from greater efficiency. In such a way, this one-time investment of $3 billion will support at least a minimum of $12 billion--that is 400 percent more-- worth of upgrades in the first 10 years alone, after which it would continue to fund upgrades into the future.

This is a novel approach for government, though it has been employed successfully in the private sector, where it has a proven track record. Tony Scott himself, Mr. Speaker, implemented a similar program when he was the chief information officer at Microsoft, which was successful and resulted in significant long-term savings.

Additionally, the fund will ensure that upgrades make use of the latest and best practices from Silicon Valley, including shared services, cloud hosting, and agile development. This will enable agencies to create new user-friendly apps and services, and facilitate the sharing of data between agencies to root out fraud and waste. It will promote the use of systems that are secure and prevent cyberattacks.

My bill will also ensure transparency by requiring all upgrade projects to provide regular status updates on a publicly available digital dashboard.

I want to thank all those who signed on as original sponsors, Mr. Speaker, and I want to say that I had discussions last night with Mr. Issa, the former chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I think he is going to cosponsor this bill with me, and we want to see this bill be a bipartisan bill.

I have also talked to ranking members on my side of the aisle in each of the relevant committees: Mr. Cummings, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Robin Kelly, and Mr. Ted Lieu, all of whom are excited to support this piece of legislation.

Again, this is a totally nonpartisan bill looking for government efficiency and safety and transparency for the American people. I hope that my friends on both sides of the aisle who care deeply about making government as effective and transparent as possible, as well as eliminating fraud and inefficiencies, will partner with us by cosponsoring this bill and helping to bring it to the floor as a bipartisan measure overwhelmingly supported by this House.

I am proud of the bipartisan work we have done together already to encourage innovation in the use of technology in Congress, particularly the hackathons I have hosted with Leader McCarthy and his predecessor, Mr. Cantor.

Let's work together. Let me say that again. Let's work together to expand that effort to the executive branch and make sure that the Federal Government can and is serving the American people effectively and transparently.

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