The House of Representatives voted 225-204 on Sept. 15 to approve the Preventing a Patronage System Act, which aims to block any future moves to assign Federal workers to newly created “excepted” service schedules. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., long one of the prime movers in Congress on Federal IT modernization issues, said today he plans to run to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee next year when the 118th Congress convenes. […]

A lack of required cybersecurity performance data for the largest 24 Federal agencies over the first half of 2022 left the House Oversight and Reform Committee partly in the dark as it formulated cybersecurity-related grades for the 14th version of its FITARA Scorecard issued by the committee today. […]

During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing today to discuss the newly-released 14th installment of the committee’s FITARA Scorecard, several Federal chief information officers (CIOs) agreed the scorecard serves as a useful tool for their agencies to track IT-related performance, but also offered recommendations on how the scorecard could improve. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is looking for answers from the General Services Administration (GSA) regarding its transition to a new online identification system for the Federal government’s awards process that has proved difficult for many vendors. […]

Democrats on the House Government Operations Subcommittee, along with hearing witnesses, today called for more money for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) as the fund’s remaining balance of about $750 million will likely be depleted by the end of this year. […]

House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today he is looking for final congressional approval in the near term for legislation he has championed for the past several years that would codify into Federal law the General Services Administration’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The program certifies the security of cloud technologies for Federal government use. […]

As the IRS continues to face a large backlog of tax returns, the agency is looking into technology that can scan and digitize paper tax filings to improve efficiency. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is leading a fresh charge for a proposed 5.1 percent pay raise for Federal employees for calendar year 2023 – up a few ticks from the 4.6 percent raise proposed by President Biden last month in his FY2023 budget request. […]

As the IRS faces a backlog of about 23.5 million tax returns and pieces of correspondence stretching back to the 2020 tax season, members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee called on the agency Thursday to modernize its IT systems and invest in scanning technology to improve efficiency. […]

Two senior House leaders on Federal technology issues said today they are looking for decisive action soon on legislation to update the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and codify and improve the General Services Administration’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) today announced $9 million in funding to modernize IT capabilities and protect Americans’ personal data at the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) and the Selective Service System (SSS). […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., have launched a new Congressional IT Modernization Caucus that they said will function as an “informal group” of lawmakers dedicated to addressing IT modernization challenges across government, and educating members of Congress on Federal IT issues. […]

Democrats in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would give Federal employees an average 5.1 percent pay raise in 2023. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act, in the House, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced the companion bill in the Senate. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has confirmed scheduling for its Jan. 20 hearing on the 13th edition of the FITARA Scorecard issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee that grades major Federal agencies for progress across a range of IT-related goals. […]

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Jody Hice, R-Ga., have sent letters to the IRS, Social Security Administration (SSA), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking feedback on how the agencies are implementing the CASES Act. […]

Legislation designed to strengthen the Office of Personnel Management Act has cleared the House Oversight and Reform Committee, despite multiple Republicans objecting to the bill. […]

The Subcommittee on Government Operations of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing today in which members of Congress explored how to build a stronger Federal workforce. […]

How well does government perform in getting done what it sets out to do? […]

The Federal government is failing to attract young talent and will need to quickly replace a huge wave of retiring employees within the next few years, according to Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Don Beyer, D-Va. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) got a $1 billion boost in March’s American Rescue Plan, and the TMF board saw a massive influx of TMF requests that it has been working on adjudicating. At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing today, Federal chief information security officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha updated senators on the status of that extra TMF funding. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – long a prime mover in Congress for improving Federal IT operations – said at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual program on September 15 that he plans to push two key pieces of legislation this year that aim to help state and local governments improve their own IT capabilities. […]

Federal IT modernization may see a significant increase in funding, $3.35 billion to be exact, if an amendment from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is successful. […]

The FedRAMP Authorization Act sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has been nearly four years in the making without crossing the goal line. But after the House approved the bill earlier this year, Rep. Connolly said today that the House is “working in lockstep” with Senate colleagues to hopefully pass the bill in 2021. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., along with 17 other Democrats, sent a letter to leaders of the House Appropriations Committee pressing them to include a 3.2 percent pay increase for Federal employees in their FY2022 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill, as opposed to supporting the current 2.7 percent pay raise. […]

For once, the biggest problem with engineering effective IT modernization may not boil down to a lack of money to tackle the job. That conclusion was a top-line takeaway from Republicans, Democrats, and private sector experts at a hearing of the House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing today on how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed state and local governments’ antiquated IT systems, and what governments should do about it now that pandemic conditions are easing in many areas. […]

A bill that would take action to block any future moves to assign Federal workers to newly created “excepted” service schedules was approved by the House Oversight and Reform Committee by voice vote on May 25 after some contentious debate. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on May 25 approved by voice vote a bill introduced last month that would make sure that Federal agency CIOs – along with chief data, financial, and human capital officers – are involved in the process of how agency leaders form performance plans for their departments. […]

Congress is about democracy – and congress understands that tech and innovation are changing everything – and that change holds peril and promise for all Americans and global democracy. […]

Five members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee are pressing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop a plan for prioritizing tech projects that are ripe for tackling with the $1 billion provided to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) under the American Rescue Plan Act. […]