Bill to reauthorize Technology Modernization Fund would extend program to 2032
A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers are pushing for the reauthorization of the law that launched the Technology Modernization Fund.
Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Thursday reintroduced the Modernizing Government Technology Act, which largely mimics legislation introduced during the last Congress, just with an updated sunset date of 2032 instead of 2031. The bill revises and adds some additional requirements to the original Modernizing Government Technology Act, which passed in 2017.
Connolly said in a press release that the reauthorization bill is a “welcome show of support for the [TMF] and the critical goal that drove its creation — bringing federal IT into the 21st century.”
“Modernization will not be achieved by blindly taking a chainsaw to the federal government or by starving agencies of the resources they need to retire legacy systems and upgrade their technology,” said Connolly, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “It requires a serious, stable and deliberate approach. That is exactly what the TMF provides.”
The bill looks to increase the TMF’s effectiveness by creating new reporting requirements for the federal chief information officer and agency CIOs, requiring a list of high-risk legacy IT systems that are used, operated or maintained by the agency, according to the bill’s text.
Additionally, the federal CIO is required to compile a legacy federal IT inventory “on the basis of each list provided by an agency” CIO.
The House passed the TMF bill last year and cleared a key Senate panel last session, but didn’t make it through the full chamber.
The TMF has received plenty of attention from policymakers, including in response to the General Services Administration’s decision to update the program to hold the repayment floor at a minimum of 50% — with rare exceptions only decided by the GSA administrator and the Office of Management and Budget director.
Congress looked to claw back the funding levels for TMF by $100 million for fiscal year 2024. Former federal CIO Clare Martorana had made repeated calls to Congress to fund the TMF.
