Cybersecurity \u2014 and to a lesser extent information technology management \u2014 is said to be a nonpartisan issue. That often proves true, even in a bitterly divided Congress. At least, that is, until money enters the debate.
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, proposed a competing bill \u2014 the MOVE IT Act \u2014 which put the onus on agencies to find the funds to update their lagging systems. The legislation wouldn\u2019t require an additional outlay from Congress for an independent fund while still requiring agencies to improve their systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hurd\u2019s proposal for an agency-centric funding mechanism while simultaneously mandating modernization ensures agencies will be invested that much more in the process and gives chief information officers and IT managers legislative cover come budget time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
But at the same time, many agencies have outdated critical systems that need to be upgraded immediately \u2014 upgrades that will come with significantly higher price tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Including a central fund \u2014 as proposed by the administration and in Maryland Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer\u2019s IT Modernization Act \u2014 enables the government to focus on those major modernization projects and ensure they get the necessary resources to be done right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The compromise: Merge both bills and cherry-pick the best parts of each. The result: the bipartisan Modernizing Government Technology Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear just how big the central fund will be, though there\u2019s little chance Congress will approve the full $3.1 billion originally proposed by the administration. But if it\u2019s substantial enough to fund a few high-priority projects at once, the fund will be a boon for agencies struggling to strengthen their systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The compromise bill is a great example of both sides of the aisle coming together and producing something that could be better than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The compromise bill is a great example of both sides of the aisle coming together and producing something that could be better than the sum of its parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[63,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2349],"class_list":["post-12482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud","category-it-networks"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JLWQYH7S45ELPHJDYDQYEHU74M","arc_canonical_url":"\/it-networks\/2016\/09\/19\/commentary-merged-it-bill-is-ideal-compromise\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n