From: Nextgov
By Joseph Marks
An updated draft of legislation to fundamentally reform how the government purchases information technology gives agency-level chief information officers more authority but scales back some earlier proposals to centralize purchasing for major IT products and services.
Most notably, the revised bill, proposed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., would make CIOs of all major civilian agencies presidential appointees or designees. Agency CIOs now are typically appointed by their department secretaries while chief financial officers are presidential appointees.
The revised bill also states the CIO should have a direct line to the secretary on important matters and retains language granting CIOs authority to shift funding within their agencies’ technology budgets, a power now only granted to the Veterans Affairs Department CIO.
Issa plans to introduce the updated Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act soon and it will likely be discussed during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee business meeting March 20, a committee spokesman said. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., will cosponsor the bill, a spokesman for Connolly said. Connolly is the ranking member of the oversight panel’s technology subcommittee.
Issa first floated the proposed federal IT reboot in September 2012 during the last Congress.
The updated legislation also “clarifies that open source software should be viewed on a level playing field with other forms of software acquisitions” but not given an advantage over proprietary software.
Technology industry groups including TechAmerica said they would not endorse the draft legislation unless a section promoting open source software was removed or revised. An Issa spokesman said at the time the legislation did not privilege open source software but merely suggested acquisition officials consider it when appropriate.
In testimony before Issa’s committee in January, federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said he does not believe new legislation is necessary to improve federal IT performance.
The updated bill also adds language aimed at promoting a broader use of “fixed price technical competition” or “bid to price” contracts.
Under a bid to price model agencies state the price they plan to pay for a product or service and vendors compete to offer the best services for that price. Bid to price models have been used sparingly in government because the Federal Acquisition Regulation lacks clear guidance about how to use them, according to a fact sheet about the updated legislation compiled by oversight committee staff.
Such contracts might prompt agencies to more extensively review the appropriate balance between the price of a contract and the good or services the agency gets for that price, the fact sheet states.
Tight budgets have pushed agencies to increasingly rely on “lowest price technically acceptable” contracts, which means the agency must accept the cheapest bidder that it determines has met all of the contract’s criteria. Acquisition officials worry those contracts give vendors an incentive to artificially lowball their bids, resulting either in shoddy products or in contracts that ultimately cost more than estimated.
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