Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5901, the Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act. This bill will help our government catch up with private-sector innovations by equipping agencies to take advantage of modern information technology solutions.

Federal agencies remain challenged by inefficient, costly, and unwieldy legacy technology systems that do not adequately deliver citizen services and allow agencies to achieve their legally mandated missions.

For example, the Government Accountability Office has reported that, between 2010 and 2017, the Federal Government spent over $450 billion just maintaining outdated legacy IT systems. That is over 70 percent of the government's entire IT budget.

There is increasingly less and less Federal IT funding available for new agency modernization projects. The government needs to take advantage of the cutting-edge technology solutions already being used by the private sector.

Recognizing the need for a different approach to transition large Federal agency technology projects, the Centers of Excellence were established by the Trump administration at the General Services Administration to help agencies overcome persistent modernization challenges.

These challenges include identifying the best new technology solutions, purchasing that technology, and then integrating that technology into an agency's unique operations and workflows. The GSA Centers of Excellence teams serve as change management consultants that bring private-sector best practices to Federal agency technology challenges.

By adopting commercially available solutions, in conjunction with deliberate enterprise-wide transformation planning, agencies can effectively transition into modern operating environments. By improving the operational efficiency of our Federal agency programs and mission, we can save taxpayer dollars.

While modernizing government is good for the taxpayer, the Centers of Excellence also deliver an additional benefit to Americans by bringing a central focus to improving agency delivery on constituent services.

H.R. 5901 promises to make the citizens' engagement with our government programs more intuitive and straightforward, like an engagement with a modern business.

I am well aware of the challenges faced by veterans, senior citizens, and businesses when interacting with the Federal Government. I am sure that my colleagues are as well.

The current pandemic has shown how critical it is for all Americans to be able to effectively and reliably interact with government agencies. It is time the Federal Government leveraged modern cloud computing systems, data-driven analytic capabilities, artificial intelligence, and modern customer experience tools to offer the highest level of service possible.

H.R. 5901 will give congressional backing and ensure regular oversight of the existing GSA program in order to accomplish these goals.

By giving legal authority to the program, we are also ensuring the program's stability through the next two Presidential administrations, which is critical to gaining agency buy-in and having the time to realize the benefits of this new modernization approach.

The Congressional Budget Office's review of this bill found that it will have no budgetary impact, which shows that there are still legislative opportunities to modernize the government without spending additional taxpayer funds.

I hope the House Oversight and Reform Committee and this Congress can continue to work together on similar legislative reforms to bring our government into the 21st century.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues for their bipartisan work on this bill. I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 5901, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mrs. MILLER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan government reform bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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