FITARA 9.0

CHAIRMAN CONNOLLY'S OPENING STATEMENT

FITARA 9.0

TAKEAWAYS

• As evident in the ninth FITARA Scorecard, most agencies have prioritized best practices in IT management and acquisitions as prescribed in FITARA.  In the first FITARA Scorecard, the average grade was a “D” across all participating agencies.  Over the past four years, agencies have incorporated new, sometimes challenging metrics and higher stakes, and yet, the average overall agency grade today is trending up – now above a “C.” 
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) disagrees with the Administration’s change to the definition of a data center in its new Data Center Optimization Initiative policy, and reports issues with some of the low-bar metrics and inaccurate data submitted by federal agencies on data center optimization. At the hearing, Chairman Connolly reaffirmed his pledge to continue oversight of OMB’s new policy to ensure the federal government continues to reap the benefits and cost savings that come from migrating data out of data centers and into the cloud.
• Large agencies with many components face additional challenges when implementing best practices in IT given the diversity and size of their component organizations.  The Acting CIO of the Department of Homeland Security, Elizabeth Cappello, and the CIO of NASA , Renee P. Wynn, both provided strategies that their agencies use to oversee, implement, and protect IT across the enterprise.

PURPOSE

The hearing will examine: (1) agency implementation with FITARA and other IT laws; (2) the importance of a direct line of reporting from an agency’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) to the head or deputy of the agency; and (3) the importance of continued focus on data center closures.

BACKGROUND

• FITARA was passed in 2014 to modernize the Federal Government’s IT.  Since the law’s implementation, the Committee and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have worked together to release a scorecard that assesses agencies’ FITARA implementation efforts every six months.  The ninth scorecard will be released at the hearing.
• Agency FITARA grades typically reflect GAO’s analysis of how agencies are performing in the following FITARA-related categories:

1. incremental development;
2. risk reporting;
3. portfolio management;
4. data center consolidation;
5. software licensing;
6. modernizing government technology;
7. information security management;
8. CIO reporting structure.