FITARA passes House in Defense bill

A measure to increase the budget authority of federal CIOs and to change IT procurement was added as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill on June 14. The overall National Defense Authorization Act passed the House by a vote of 315 to 108.

The Federal IT Procurement Reform Act (FITARA), which was co-sponsored by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and passed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March, was added to the Defense bill on a voice vote, along with a number of other bipartisan measures. FITARA updates the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, which itself was passed as a section of a Defense authorization bill.

However, the FITARA that is now heading toward become law has been amended in some significant ways since passing committee. Lawmakers removed language that appeared to tip the scales in favor of open source over proprietary software – a change sought by many in industry. The legislation also now calls for the federal IT Dashboard to track “steady state” or operations and maintenance spending, and clarifies that agency CIOs have hiring authority over deputies and associate CIOs at large bureaus and agency components.

The measure puts "real meaning behind the term 'chief information officer,'" Issa said in remarks on the House floor. "Never again will someone have that title and have no budget authority or responsibility. When a program goes right, the chief information officer is responsible. When a program goes awry, it’s his or her job to make it right."

"There are more than 250 identified CIOs in the federal government, yet none possess the necessary authority to effectively manage IT investments," said Connolly in an e-mailed statement. "This has resulted in duplicative and wasteful IT spending, with taxpayers forced to foot the bill for massive IT program failures that ring up staggeringly high costs, but exhibit astonishingly poor performance."

The bill also pushes the acceleration of cloud computing technology, and tries to reduce duplication in IT contracts by requiring the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to weigh in on the creation of new government-wide contract vehicles. It also adds new rigor to the calculation of savings from data center optimization.

The White House threatened to veto the $638 billion Defense bill in a June 11 policy statement, for reasons wholly unrelated to FITARA. The administration has yet to offer comment on FITARA, but back in January, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel told the House Oversight committee that he already has the authority under the law to accomplish many of the policy goals spelled out in the bill. The Senate has yet to hold hearings on the bill, but the issue of CIO authority was the subject of a recent hearing by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.