House-Passed It Reform Bill Expands Single CIO Mandate To DOD

The version of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act that passed the House of Representatives contains a handful of revisions from the version passed out of committee in 2013. Most importantly, the law’s mandate that all agencies employ a single official with the title chief information officer and the authority to manage that agency’s IT budget has been expanded to include the Defense Department, which was previously exempted. Changes to the bill were made on a bipartisan basis by the IT Reform Act’s Republican and Democratic cosponsors and aimed at raising the likelihood the bill would pass both the House and the Senate, Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) said while introducing the bill. Rep Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, co-sponsored the bill with Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who is ranking member on the committee’s government operations panel.