Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6004, the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2016. Let me also thank my good friend and coauthor of this bill, Mr. Hurd of Texas, for his leadership in shepherding this bill through our committee and now on to the floor. Sometimes, deservedly, Congress gets dinged on for not being able to get anything done. But the fact of the matter is that, below the surface, lots of things can and do get done with leadership, collaboration, and partnership. Mr. Hurd of Texas epitomizes that, and my hat is off to him for his contribution on this whole front of IT modernization and helping to bring the Federal Government into the 21st century when it comes to the use of technology. Every day Federal agencies endure cyber attacks that have the potential to cause incalculable damage to national security and the privacy of all Americans. While the Federal Government does its best to protect our critical computer networks, our efforts are often stymied by the outdated legacy information technologies in Federal agencies. Agencies spend nearly 75 percent of their IT budgets simply trying to maintain these outdated systems. Let me repeat that: in an $82 billion program for IT acquisition procurement and management, 75 percent of that budget is not spent in updating the Federal Government in cutting- edge technologies.…”