Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., called for effective IT procurement reform in an opinion piece published Nov. 26 by USA Today.
Hearkening the botched rollout of healthcare.gov, Connolly urged the Senate to pass the bipartisan Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act.
Connolly said the media overlooked that healthcare.gov’s launch was a symptom of a larger problem, the IT acquisition process.
FITARA, he said, could start the long process of fixing the problem.
“If the Issa-Connolly FITARA had been law during the development of healthcare.gov, President Obama would have been authorized to appoint his own chief technology leader at the Department of Health and Human Services, and this individual…[would have] been empowered to recruit top talent IT talent and manage critical IT investments,” Connolly said in the piece.
If the bill were passed, new measures in transparency would allow the public to view data on IT projects, including cost, schedule and performance information.
The bill passed the House in June and is still waiting for the Senate to take up the measure.
“The Senate is poised to ensure these reforms reach the president’s desk, so America can finally move past the symptoms to attack the disease of broken federal IT procurement,” Connolly said.
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