WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after the Modernizing Government Technology Act was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act:
“I’m very pleased that my bipartisan Modernizing Government Technology Act, which will create a new model for rapidly upgrading our aging government technology systems, has been signed into law. Last year, I presented an agenda to help renew Americans’ faith in their government and one of the core principles of that agenda was improving government technology to make government more efficient, accountable, secure, and user-friendly. Creating a Technology Modernization Fund, which this legislation does, is the centerpiece of that effort.
“The Fund will use the latest best practices from Silicon Valley, such as cloud computing, shared services, and agile development. Once the upgrades are completed, agencies will pay back into the Fund over time using the savings achieved through greater efficiency. Transparency would be maintained by requiring all Fund project details to be updated regularly online for the public to see.
“I’m especially proud that this is a bipartisan effort. I want to thank former President Obama and former U.S. CIO Tony Scott for originally proposing the idea for a Technology Modernization Fund. I also want to thank the many Congressional Democrats who worked on this bill, especially Rep. Gerry Connolly, Rep. Robin Kelly, Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Sen. Tom Udall, as well as my Republican colleagues who supported this bill, including Majority Leader McCarthy, Rep. Will Hurd, and Sen. Jerry Moran. I will continue working to ensure that Congress adequately capitalizes the new fund so that agencies can begin overhauling their technology systems without delay.”