Agencies Get IT Reform Marching Orders, but Don't Expect Congress To Sit Idle

The White House released new rules for pumping up the authority of agency chief information officers in a bid to better manage the $80 billion spent each year on federal IT. The Office of Management and Budget is holding agencies’ feet to the fire to fully implement the new CIO job responsibilities, but the Government Accountability Office is also cautioning Congress not to let oversight of the process languish.

The release of the final guidelines coincided with testimony by U.S. CIO Tony Scott and other federal officials at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing about the implementation of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, known as FITARA. The “backbone” of the new rules, Scott testified, is the setting out of a “common baseline” of roles and responsibilities for agency CIOs. FITARA grants CIOs more authority over IT budgets and spending at their agencies, but actually making that edict carry over to agency organization charts consumes much of the new guidance.