Federal Government Information Technology

IT Modernization Bill Could be Reintroduced in Congress This Week

Nextgov: One of the tech-savviest congressmen is ready to reintroduce legislation to tackle one of the federal government’s greatest technology problems.

Sources on Capitol Hill tell Nextgov Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, could this week introduce a tweaked version of the Modernizing Government Technology Act, which passed the House in September but stalled in the Senate during the lame-duck session.

Hurd, along with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., sponsored MGT in September as a means to combat the federal government’s aging IT infrastructure, whereby systems citizens depend on for integral services—like Social Security benefits—are as many as five decades old. On average, agencies spend around 80 percent of their IT budgets maintaining old and sometimes outdated systems, meaning most of the $90 billion spent on IT annually goes toward aging technology.

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