Sylvester Turner: “Mr. Chairman, first I commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for his work on this Digital Tech Corps Act.…”

“Mr. Chairman, first I commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for his work on this Digital Tech Corps Act. The Committee on Government Reform has been quite diligent in trying to improve the information technology of the Federal Government, and this exchange program which allows private sector employees to come into government agencies and also allows government employees to go into the private sector for the purpose of exchanging information and knowledge, expanding the ability of the Federal Government to understand and to implement information technology improvements, is certainly a wise and important step in our efforts to improve the information technology capability of our Federal employees and our Federal agencies. This legislation adopts a number of suggestions that have been made by the minority. There are three in particular I would like to mention. One, the bill includes stronger ethics provisions, as suggested by the minority. It also requires reports periodically from the Office of Personnel Management to advise the public as to who is participating in this program. We think this sunshine provision is very important to maintain the integrity and the credibility of this exchange program. At our suggestion, the legislation is also sunsetted after 5 years and requires the General Accounting Office to submit to the committee an evaluation of the success of the program.”