Management

House Folds IT Subcommittee into Government Operations Panel

The group will still handle oversight of FITARA implementation.

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Phil Goldstein is a former web editor of the CDW family of tech magazines and a veteran technology journalist. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and their animals: a dog named Brenna, and two cats, Grady and Princess.

The House subcommittee most identified with federal IT issues is being folded into another panel, but its work will continue, according to Rep. Gerry Connolly, who chairs the combined group. The IT oversight panel of the House Oversight and Reform Committee will be merged with the Government Operations subcommittee.

As FedScoop reports, the IT group, previously chaired by Rep. Will Hurd, “has taken up multiple issues central to the government’s technology modernization efforts, such as the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act implementation, cybersecurity policy and more.”

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“We spend almost $90 billion a year on Federal IT procurement, and that demands oversight and accountability,” Connolly said in a statement to FedScoop. “Marrying the two subcommittees was done in recognition of the fact that so much of the federal government’s operations are reliant upon information technology. From FITARA to the MGT Act, federal IT is helping us deliver some of the most important functions and services our government provides to the public. Whether it is the FITARA Scorecard or FedRAMP reform, our subcommittee will continue to drive modernization in the federal government.”

On Dec. 11, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the seventh IT Scorecard, better known as the FITARA Scorecard. The good news? Almost half of all of the 24 CFO Act agencies saw their grades go up compared to the last scorecard in May. The latest scorecard showed that 11 agencies improved their overall grades and the other 13 maintained their previous scores. This comes as more elements have been added to the FITARA scorecard to gauge agencies’ IT modernization efforts.