WASHINGTON – The IT Alliance for the Public Sector (ITAPS), a division of ITI, released the following letter today sent to Senate leadership from Senior Vice President for the Public Sector Trey Hodgkins, urging lawmakers to pass the bipartisan Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2016 (MGT Act), which is currently before the Senate. As Congress returns to work following the November 8th election, Hodgkins urges Senators to complete their work on the MGT Act by moving it through committee and bring it before the Senate for a vote before Congress adjourns.
Click here for the letter, text of which is pasted below:
November 14, 2016
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Harry Reid
Democratic Leader, U.S. Senate
The Honorable Ron Johnson
Chairman, Senate Homeland Security and
The Honorable Thomas Carper
Ranking Member, Senate Homeland Security and
Re: The Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2016 (MGT Act)
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Chairman Johnson, Democratic Leader Reid and Ranking Member Carper:
On behalf of the member companies of the Information Technology Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS), I am writing to express our strong support for the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act of 2016 (H.R. 6004). This bipartisan legislation would reform the way we fund and modernize information technology (IT) solutions and permit government IT to better keep pace with innovation. We believe that the bill creates the opportunity for agencies to effectively fund their needs for cloud computing, IT modernization, cybersecurity and future IT development. We urge the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to mark up the legislation and advance it for final passage before the Chamber adjourns for this Congress.
ITAPS has long advocated for greater flexibility in funding solutions that enable agencies to make timely IT investments. Federal agencies spend approximately 80 percent of their total IT budget on maintaining legacy IT systems. Because of strict funding cycles that inhibit agencies from procuring the latest innovations that could help them meet mission needs, our government is beholden to generations-old technology. It is imperative that the Senate pass the MGT Act because it creates new options outside of the funding cycle for IT investment and offers ways to make dollars available to agencies when they are ready to invest. By doing so, agencies can adopt innovative technologies that will lead to better constituent services, deliver greater efficiencies for the taxpayer and enable greater capabilities and technological advantages for fulfilling the government mission.
ITAPS and its member companies are committed to continue working with Congress to perfect this language as it moves through the legislative process. Specifically, we wish to ensure that, as part of the agency Working Capital Funds, the discretion of agency chief information officers in IT investment decisions is not diluted, and that incentives for participation in both funding options are not undermined or eroded by coupling repayment requirements in the IT Modernization Fund with savings deposited into the agency Working Capital Funds.
We look forward to working with you further as the bill advances.
Sincerely,
A.R. “Trey” Hodgkins, III, CAE
Senior Vice President, Public Sector
Cc: Members of the U.S. Senate
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