Zoe Lofgren: “I think there is some misunderstandings among some of the speakers because the amendment before us does not repeal…”

“I think there is some misunderstandings among some of the speakers because the amendment before us does not repeal procurement law; it merely applies the procurement efficiency laws, the Clinger-Cohen Act, to the INS, and changes the limits for a 2-year time period so that we can get some technology into this agency. Right now, Silicon Valley companies and high-tech companies across the country are willing to come in and do assessments for what the agency needs. And actually, what they are saying is have everyone come in, not a sole source, come in and help this agency find out what it needs. We lack an enterprise architecture, and under current law we cannot do that. If we do not streamline and allow for existing streamlined procedures to be put in place on a 2-year time frame for this agency, we are going to continue to hear what we have for the last 10 years. In 2 years' time we will have some technology. We still have 236 PCs, we still have an agency that is creating paper files. If we do not apply the existing law that allows for streamlining acquisitions to this agency, we are going to end up continuing to waste taxpayers' dollars; we are going to continue to have Americans put at risk because databases cannot communicate with each other. I have seen the picture of Mohammed Atta too many times today.”