Virginia's 11th district is home to some of the nation's most successful technology firms. From his private sector experience, Congressman Connolly knows firsthand the positive impact the technology sector has on our regional and national economy. He believes a strong and innovative technology agenda will be critical to ensuring America maintains our global competitiveness.
As a senior member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, Congressman Connolly is directly engaged in federal information technology policy, federal contracting, and improving cyber security across the federal government.
Congressman Connolly is the author of landmark bipartisan Information Technology (IT) reform legislation known as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition and Reform Act (FITARA) and worked successfully to pass and enact the FITARA Enhancement Act, which increased transparency of federal agency IT acquisitions.
The government spends more than $90 billion on IT products and services, with about 80 percent of that amount on the operations and maintenance of existing IT investments, including aging and legacy systems. Congressman Connolly's bipartisan law has helped move us towards new IT systems by streamlining the technology procurement process and empowering CIOs within federal agencies, consolidating data centers, and identifying additional technology savings.
Congressman Connolly has held a series of hearings and has devised a biannual scorecard to measure each agency’s progress implementing the various components of FITARA and other pertinent federal IT legislation. Since the Scorecard’s inception in 2015, agencies have made substantial, positive strides in improving their information technology practices. These improvements represent vital services delivered and more than $20 billion saved because we are finally baking IT into our policy decision-making process.
Congressman Connolly also helped author the Modernizing Government Technology Act, which allows agencies to use savings generated through FITARA and other reforms to make investments in cloud transition and apply for critical IT funding through the Technology Modernization Fund. Congressman Connolly was able to secure $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund through the American Rescue Plan, to help agencies modernize IT systems and provide better experiences to the public.
The impacts from the unprecedented pandemic, solidified the importance of federal IT modernization. In the midst of the pandemic and despite a robust legislative response, many individuals and small businesses were denied timely support and assistance because of severely deficient IT infrastructure at the federal, state, and local levels of government.
The consequences of poor government IT are serious. By modernizing our IT infrastructure, we can deliver services to the public that are intuitive, accessible, and responsive to customer needs. This includes providing federal agencies with the tools and resources to retire legacy systems and move to the cloud.
Congressman Connolly continues to push agencies to move to the cloud by authoring legislation to codify the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) to standardize the federal government’s approach to ensuring the security of all data stored in the cloud.
