Matt Cartwright: “I appreciate this opportunity to speak about my bill, H.R. 1695, the SAMOSA Act, the Strengthening Agency Management and…”

“I appreciate this opportunity to speak about my bill, H.R. 1695, the SAMOSA Act, the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act. It is a signal mission, Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin. It is a signal mission of the Oversight Committee to root out waste, fraud, and abuse and to take measures to correct such waste of money of the American taxpayers. This legislation would require all Federal agencies to conduct a comprehensive assessment of their current software assets and restructure their operations to reduce unnecessary costs. The U.S. Government is the largest single software customer in the world. Our Federal Government spends billions of taxpayer dollars every year on software licenses alone. Most of these software license purchases are purposeful, but some are redundant, duplicative, and simply unnecessary. GAO reports have called out duplicative IT purchases and concluded that better tracking and inventory systems are necessary to avoid unnecessary purchases. Current software procurement processes lack transparency about what software assets are purchased and which ones are deployed by Federal agencies. In fact, many of the government software audits are done by the software vendors themselves. That is a stunning oversight. Additionally, rigid software licensing agreements restrict vendor competition and prevent Federal agencies from accessing more cost- effective options.…”