Darrell Issa: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My amendment is not controversial, but it's critical. At a time when over $80 billion is spent…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My amendment is not controversial, but it's critical. At a time when over $80 billion is spent and over 10 percent of it goes completely wasted on information technology purchases by the government, there has never been a more important time to update the legendary, historic Clinger-Cohen Act. That Act in 1996 was attached to the NDAA, exactly as this one is, and it created the positions of Chief Information Officers to oversee IT management. {time} 1040 1996 was a time in which you could still have an IBM AT 286 computer on your desk. The idea of cloud servers didn't exist, and the size and scope and dependency on the cyber environment was never even anticipated. So as we modernize this act, I would ask to both have it considered as important, but also have it recognized as critically necessary. One of the most important things and something that makes common sense to the people who may hear this today or read it in the transcript is that we have more chief information officers today than we have departments, and all but one have no budget authority. This legislation, when enacted, will eliminate that. It will eliminate duplicative IT purchases that give us overruns of as much as 20 percent in our purchasing of licenses, but it also will put real meaning behind the term ``chief information officer.'' Never again will someone have that title and have no budget authority or responsibility.…”