Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, Darrell Issa, the cosponsor of this bill and the cosponsor of the original FITARA; and my good friend from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) for his able management today. The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA, was enacted 3 years ago. It represented the first major reform of the laws governing the procurement and management of Federal IT since the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. FITARA is the framework for IT procurement and ensures the Federal Government is making smart and effective investments to modernize its IT, which is badly needed. It has seven pillars: First, it enhances CIO authorities, responsibilities, and accountability. Second, it enhances transparency and improves risk management by requiring detailed information on investments to be published on the IT dashboard. Third, we increased the frequency of portfolio reviews from annual to quarterly and included key decisionmakers from the agency and OMB to not only look for ways to increase efficiency, but to eliminate duplication. Fourth, we built on the Federal data center consolidation effort to push agencies to realize big savings from this low-hanging fruit. Fifth, people. Recognizing that Federal IT success is only as good as the people behind it, FITARA calls for expanding the training and use of IT professionals.…”