Should the Federal Chief Information Officer Have More Authority? (H.R. 247)

What is H.R. 247?

(Updated June 25, 2019)

The — Federal CIO Authorization Act of 2018 — would aim to modernize the federal government’s information technology (IT) infrastructure by reauthorizing, renaming, codifying, and elevating the role of the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO).

To achieve this goal, the bill would create a clearer IT reporting structure within the Administration by:

• Reauthorizing and renaming the Office of E-Government as the “Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer”;

• Elevating the Federal CIO’s role to that of a presidential appointee who directly reports to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director instead of the deputy director, as it currently stands;

• Codifying the Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) as a presidential appointee reporting the Federal CIO;

• Directing federal agencies to report to Congress on the IT investments; and

• Directing the Federal CIO to submit a proposal to Congress for consolidating and streamlining IT across federal agencies

Argument in favor

Giving the federal CIO more authority and making them report directly to the OMB Director would give this position greater authority to modernize the federal government’s IT infrastructure.

Argument opposed

There have been multiple recent efforts to elevate agency CIOs, none of which have addressed the federal CIO. Based on this, it seems that there’s no need to elevate the federal CIO to the level this bill proposes.

Impact

Federal agencies; federal IT infrastructure; Office of E-Government; OMB; agency CIOs; Congress; OMB Director; federal CIO; and the federal CISO.

Cost of H.R. 247

When this bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, the CBO expected that it’d largely codify current practices, so the only expenditure would be the cost of creating a report on the feasibility of consolidating the federal government’s 100 small-to-midsize agencies’ IT services. The CBO estimates this would cost up to $2 million.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) reintroduced this bill from the 115th Congress to keep Americans’ information stored with the federal government safe:

“Every single minute of every single day, hackers are trying to steal Americans’ information. From credit card numbers, to social security numbers, our personal information is targeted by bad actors around the globe. Americans should be able to trust their government to keep their information safe.”

Rep. Hurd originally introduced this bill in the 115th Congress to modernize the federal government by reauthorizing, renaming, codifying, and elevating the role of the Federal CIO:

“No entity can operate securely and efficiently without a CIO in the year 2018, including the federal government. This bill does more than just rename an office. It makes a clear statement that the Federal CIO is in charge of coordinating IT policy across the government in order to ensure that our agencies are able to provide better, faster and more cost-efficient services for the American people.”

In the 116th Congress, this bill has the support of three bipartisan cosponsors, including two Democrats and one Republican. In the previous Congress, it passed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on a voice vote with the support of four cosponsors, including three Democrats and one Republican.

Of Note: The 2014 Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) gave greater authority to executive agency CIOs, requiring that they report directly to an agency secretary or deputy secretary. However, FITARA didn’t address the authority of the federal CIO.

The White House also issued an executive order in May to again elevate the role of agency CIOs. However, this again didn’t address the federal CIO’s authority.

Media:

• Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) Press Release

• CBO Cost Estimate

• Techcrunch

• Countable (115th Congress)