Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Will Hurd, R-Texas reintroduced today their Federal CIO Authorization Act, which is intended to elevate and reauthorize the role of the Federal CIO. A previous version of the legislation passed unanimously out of the House on Nov. 30, 2018.
“Reauthorizing and codifying the roles of the Federal CIO and CISO will help streamline government IT processes and advance modernization efforts to bring government into the 21st century,” said Kelly. “This commonsense, bipartisan legislation to increase government effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness unanimously passed the House during the 115th Congress; we need to get this done in the 116th Congress.”
Hurd agreed with Kelly and stressed the importance of securing citizen data held by the Federal government, “Americans should be able to trust their government to keep their information safe. This bill helps keep the vast information stored by the Federal government secure from hackers by making clear that the Federal CIO is in charge of the security of our data across the government.”
Kelly and Hurd touted that the legislation “creates a clearer IT reporting structure within the Administration” by:
- “Elevating the Federal CIO’s role as a Presidential appointee who directly reports to Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB);
- Codifying the Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) as a Presidential appointee reporting to the Federal CIO;
- Directing the Federal CIO to submit a proposal to Congress for consolidating and streamlining IT across federal agencies; and,
- Reauthorizing and renaming the Office of E-Government as the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO).”
