[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 163 (Wednesday, October 11, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H7955-H7957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1600
                     FITARA ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2017

  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3243) to amend title 40, United

[[Page H7956]]

States Code, to eliminate the sunset of certain provisions relating to 
information technology, to amend the National Defense Authorization Act 
for Fiscal Year 2015 to extend the sunset relating to the Federal Data 
Center Consolidation Initiative, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows

                               H.R. 3243

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``FITARA Enhancement Act of 
     2017''.

     SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF SUNSET RELATING TO TRANSPARENCY AND 
                   RISK MANAGEMENT OF MAJOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 
                   INVESTMENTS.

       Subsection (c) of section 11302 of title 40, United States 
     Code, is amended by striking the first paragraph (5).

     SEC. 3. ELIMINATION OF SUNSET RELATING TO INFORMATION 
                   TECHNOLOGY PORTFOLIO, PROGRAM, AND RESOURCE 
                   REVIEWS.

       Section 11319 of title 40, United States Code, is amended--
       (1) by redesignating the second subsection (c) as 
     subsection (d); and
       (2) in subsection (d), as so redesignated, by striking 
     paragraph (6).

     SEC. 4. EXTENSION OF SUNSET RELATING TO FEDERAL DATA CENTER 
                   CONSOLIDATION INITIATIVE.

       Subsection (e) of section 834 of the National Defense 
     Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (Public Law 113-291; 
     44 U.S.C. 3601 note) is amended by striking ``2018'' and 
     inserting ``2020''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) and the gentlewoman from the District of 
Columbia (Ms. Norton) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma.


                             General Leave

  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oklahoma?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak in support of H.R. 3243, the FITARA Enhancement 
Act of 2017, introduced by Mr. Connolly, Mr. Issa, Ms. Kelly from 
Illinois, and Mr. Meadows earlier this year.
  Today, the Federal Government spends more than $90 billion on Federal 
IT, with approximately 75 percent of this money spent on archaic and 
legacy IT. This means we are paying more for less: less capability and 
less security. Meanwhile, major Federal IT investments often result in 
multimillion-dollar cost overruns and delays.
  This state of affairs led the Government Accountability Office to 
designate Federal IT acquisition and management as high risk in 2015, 
meaning this area is at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and 
mismanagement.
  In 2014, Congress passed the Federal Information Technology 
Acquisition Reform Act, otherwise known as FITARA, to address some of 
these IT challenges.
  Congress has maintained a watchful eye to ensure agencies fully 
implement the requirements of FITARA and use it as a vital oversight 
tool. In fact, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held 
five hearings on FITARA implementation.
  The committee also created a FITARA scorecard to hold Federal 
agencies accountable for meeting FITARA requirements, some of which 
sunset in the near term.
  This bill will help us facilitate Congress' oversight efforts by 
extending key FITARA requirements to improve Federal IT.
  For example, this bill extends requirements for agencies to publicly 
report schedule and cost information and to assess the risks of major 
IT investments. This bill also extends requirements for each agency to 
regularly assess its IT portfolio, look for opportunities to reduce 
duplication, and find savings.
  Finally, the bill will help us continue to hold agencies accountable 
for consolidating and optimizing their data centers by extending these 
requirements--and GAO's verification of these requirements--through 
2020.
  The GAO, which has been instrumental in assisting Congress oversee 
FITARA implementation, supports extending the FITARA sunset dates.
  Mr. Connolly from Virginia and Mr. Issa from California have been the 
key leaders on the original FITARA law, and they have come together 
again to sponsor this bill, along with Representatives Meadows and 
Kelly.
  The FITARA Enhancement Act is truly a bipartisan effort in making 
sure Federal agencies get their information technology management and 
acquisition houses in order.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), the sponsor of the bill.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, 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.
  Sixth, FITARA seeks to maximize new tools like the Federal Strategic 
Sourcing Initiative, taking a page from the private sector to reduce 
duplicative spending on common purchases and off-the-shelf items.
  Finally, FITARA advances a government software purchasing program to 
allow for purchasing licensing agreements that can be made available 
for use by all Federal agencies.
  FITARA is a rubric for IT procurement that, hopefully, someday 
enables initiatives like the Modernizing Government Technology Act to 
build on our success of improving how the government acquires and 
modernizes IT.
  When the stakeholders met on Federal IT from government agencies and 
industry, both Mr. Issa and I constantly were reminded of why previous 
major IT reform efforts had fallen short of their potential: the lack 
of robust implementation plan and congressional oversight.
  As Mr. Russell indicated quite clearly, in that latter regard, we 
have robust oversight, and it will continue.
  One of the things we had in FITARA were some sunset provisions, in 
the hope and expectation that, by having that, we would encourage 
cooperation and implementation. That cooperation and implementation is 
uneven throughout the Federal Government.
  The GAO, or Government Accountability Office, recommended that we 
have this bill to extend those sunset provisions to buy a little bit 
more time to get with the program for those Federal agencies.
  So that is what this bill does, but it builds on FITARA, which is the 
framework for IT procurement and modernization.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), an original cosponsor of this 
bill and also the former chairman of the Government and Oversight 
Reform Committee.
  Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, no one has ever had a better partner on a 
piece of

[[Page H7957]]

legislation than I have had. The best way I can describe Mr. Connolly 
is, like anyone else who came to a realization of something, he came to 
it with a great deal of zeal. This partnership, which began before the 
passage in 2014, to modernize a 1996 initiative that had fallen short, 
has been his passion and mine.
  Normally, when you are chairman, people talk about what divides the 
committee. But nothing united us more than recognizing that over $80 
billion was being spent--and much of it needlessly. We don't achieve 
what we want to because there is never enough. Part of it is how we 
procure.
  Prior to the passage of this legislation, it certainly was possible 
to have major pieces of procurement have somebody in charge who could 
not, in fact, change or drop the expenditure and who could not simply 
say: This isn't working. On top of that, often the people who did have 
the authority lacked the expertise. This has been true in all sorts of 
areas. There is much more work to be done.
  Unlike Clinger-Cohen, which went on for 18 years before being 
updated, we were just 3 years past the implementation of this bill. 
With Congressman Connolly's effort, we are coming back and making real 
changes--ones that can continue the process and speed it up.
  Obviously, there are some areas like the IT dashboard and others that 
simply need to be continued to be renewed. This bill does it.
  When I first talked to Mr. Connolly, he was the best known for 
absolutely wanting to consolidate processing centers; consolidate these 
server farms that had proliferated. The number he had at the time 
turned out to be, although exorbitant, less than a quarter of the 
number we found. So there is more work to be done.
  Procurement has to be done smart and is often consolidated. With the 
help of my colleague and Senator Warner, the passage of the DATA Act 
allowed us to find, with greater detail, redundancy of expenditure.
  So as we reauthorize FITARA, we also have the information to 
consolidate purchasing across vast numbers of agencies, eliminate 
redundancy, and, in fact, buy better. More needs to be done.
  As Mr. Connolly said so accurately, more money is spent on legacy 
systems than is spent on new systems that will actually save money and 
provide better services both to government workers and to the public.
  So as we reauthorize the bill, I look forward to the oversight that 
the Oversight Committee has done and is able to do, and I look forward 
to continuing to work with my partner from Virginia, Mr. Connolly.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 3243, the 
FITARA Enhancement Act.
  FITARA is bipartisan legislation that has made significant strides in 
reforming government IT and making agencies more accountable. I thank 
Representative Connolly for all his hard work on this bill, as well as 
my good friend who has just spoken, Mr. Russell.
  This bill would extend three provisions of FITARA that are set to 
expire. These provisions include the provision on Federal data center 
consolidation; transparency and risk management of major IT systems; 
and agencies' IT portfolio, program, and resource reviews, also known 
as PortfolioStat.
  These provisions provide transparency and accountability for agencies 
and should be continued. GAO reports that if we allow these provisions 
to expire, we will miss out on major savings. IT spending makes up 
roughly $100 billion of government spending each year. We cannot afford 
to allow this legislation that will save funds and help modernize IT 
assets to simply expire.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to strongly support this bill, and 
I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Gowdy, Mr. Connolly from 
Virginia, and Mr. Issa from California for this important and continued 
work that will not only improve IT and reduce duplication but will 
continue to save billions of taxpayer dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 3243.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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