In the News

Today, the House adopted three amendments offered by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Connolly’s amendments addressed federal IT modernization, data center consolidation, procurement reform and increased government efficiency and accountability.

FITARA Extension: This amendment extends Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) provisions related to federal data center consolidation, transparency and risk management of major IT systems, and IT portfolio, program, and resource reviews.

“The federal government invests roughly $100 billion in IT each year,” said Connolly. "We need to let agencies know that they are not going to be able to run out the clock on FITARA’s transparency and reporting requirements. A limited extension of the data center provisions of FITARA, scheduled to sunset October 1, 2018, will help us do that.”

“I look forward to continued bipartisan collaboration on FITARA implementation to ensure these investments are efficient, effective, and in the best interest of the taxpayer.”

Procurement and Administrative Lead Time Amendment: This amendment directs the Secretary of Defense to develop a definition and way to measure Procurement Administration Lead Time (PALT). Additionally, the amendment requires a plan for measuring and publicly reporting data on procurement administrative lead time for DoD contracts and task orders above a certain threshold.

Following adoption of the amendment, Congressman Connolly, chair of the Congressional Government Efficiency Caucus said, “This amendment is an important step toward greater efficiency and accountability in the federal procurement process.”

“Given the number and costs of contracts and task orders issued by the Department of Defense, it is important that the Department collect information on the amount of time between when a solicitation is issued and the initial award of the contract or task order. By establishing a uniform definition and collecting this data, DoD, the contractor community, and other stakeholders can better analyze the data and use it as a tool to reduce unnecessary delays and save taxpayer dollars.”

Walorski-Connolly Amendment: This bipartisan amendment directs the Comptroller General to report to Congress on adopting and enhancing nationally-accredited project, program, and portfolio management standards within the Department of Defense.