Do we ask everyone to turn on their cameras . Were getting ready to get started. The hearing will come to order. I welcome everybody to this hybrid hearing. Both ranks member mr. Hysse and myself have wanted to have hearings resume in person especially when we are in session. I made a promise that i would fight for that, and today is the fruit of that effort. I believe when were in session protecting everybody, those who are not comfortable or physically cannot join us in the hearings room, are more than welcome to join us through web i no noor. We ask everybody when they were not speaking, to wear a mask. I really appreciate that cooperation of for members appears remotely. House rules require that we see you, so police have your cameras turned on at all times during the course of the hearing. If they can let us you can use the chat function to send a request. And if that doesnt work, you can unmute and seek recognition. These arent ideal circumstances, but we are in the midst of a pandemic that is tragically growing rather than contracting, so we want to make sure we are safe. We will do the federal governments response has exposed some fundamental weaknesses that have to be fixed millions of americans facing illness have provided unprecedented levels of economic assistance. That prevented them the cares act, overwhelmingly passed was signed into law on march 27th. We still do not have the tasked with facilitating more than 750 billion in Small Business loans and grants. And in my home state of virginia, certainly times of unemployment claims will not be available until august, due to the states failure to update its i. T. Systems. The Public Policy response was there, but the i. T. Systems obvious couldnt deliver. To deliver in an emergency, and that should galvanize us all. Its been reported that 21 Million People did not receive their stimulus care, because he they could not find accurate information. Hundreds of thousands were shot out of sba system for submitting loan applications. For every ten people who successfully filed for unemployment, an additional three to four were unable to submit claims online. S thats a big problem. Issues are not news to us we had the reform act to help federal agencies prioritize modernizati modernization. The act also coming youve this committee was passed to enable agencies to establish working Capital Funds, to help them to use savings in order to further invest in upgraded agile system and transition away from legacy systems, which were often 30, 40 years old. The law also created, coming out of this economiee again, the Modernization Fund which established a government Funding Source for agencies to remove and replace those legacy systems, and upgrade their own. And this is ilextra tiff of the small thinking which unfortunatelily is prevailed when it comes to making i. T. Investments. Agencies responsible for performing critical functions operate on legacy systems with components, sometimes dating back even 50 years. The Government Accountability office found the ten most critical legacy systems in need of modernization and maintained by ten different federal agencies, each performing essential Government Operations. As they age, these legacy systems become more expensive to maintain, more vulnerable to cyberattacks, less effect ivlg in accompanies agency missions. Femas public alert Warning System fails, millions of lives could be lost during a natural disaster, because lifesaving information was not delivered to the public in time. If the department of interior system that monitors power plant stalls, thousands of communities could be left without power. Simply put, outdated and inefficient systems put american lives as well as livelihoods at risk. As we heard from organizations nonetheless, the largescale shift to telework highlighted. Underlying i. T. This its been reported increased risk of data breaches, disclosures of classified information, and targeted cyberattacks and fraud schemes affecting Financial Aid to Small Business and people affected by the pandemic. Going forward, federal agencies will need to quickly retire their legacy systems and priority ice modernizing i. T. , like adopting Cloud Computing technologies through fed ramp, a program that enables agencies to quickly secure and adopt new technologies. Im grateful for the fact that in the Defense Authorization bill we are considering today on the floor, in the first en bloc group of amendments, or bill that came out of this committee is included. In 2019, 13 agencies reported to gao they achieved at least 291 billion in savings from increasing their investments in cloud technologies. I hope we can continue to advance the bipartisan fed ramp authorization act that passed the house by voice vote, into law and signed by the president on a bipartisan basis. Modern rye liable i. T. Is not just a nice thing to have. Our federal governments consistent failure to prioritize, and Program Delivery prevented the public from receiving the assistance congress authorized to help the nation weather the worst Global Pandemic in 100 years. We can no longer allow outdated and Legacy Technology to stymie the delivery of vital services. We will need to rip out root and stem sisms that have hung around for decades, because the replacement costs have been prohibitive expensive, because if do so is a matter of saving the American Economy from collapse, almost anything is cheap by comparison. With that, i call upon the distinguished Ranking Member for his fiveminute Opening Statement. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I appreciate a great deal you working with us to make this hearing happen. I really am grateful for that. I would say, though, that we guidance to wear masks are one thing, and Committee Rules are another. Theres no question that in this room right here we are well beyond the guidance that the cdc recommends, and we have had some who are not here today because they feel as though we are too strict in the requirement of the mask. So i would ask, as we go forward, that we would continue to work through this to see how we can accommodate all members who would like to participate in hearings within the cdc guidelines as well. I will, as i have on having a having a hearing, i will work as diligently as i can with him. I will, however note, that the committee is followed guidance of the capitol hill figures. It isnt just cdc guidance, and we also well. I also appreciate you holding this i think we are all very much aware of the need for modernization in this area, the lack thereof. It certainly exposes us to security risks as well as inability for flexibility and scaling up. Ultimately our agencies were incapable of meeting the needs and the responsibilities they are required to do. Yet we as a government continue to spend the majority of the budget on maintaining these legacy systems rather than taking us into the new era of computer needs. For example from 2010 to 2017, 450 billion was spend just to keep legacy systems running. That also represents 450 billion that was not able to be used for new technology. At the same Time Technology continues to move forward and improve while we are slow to procure any new capabilities whatever. Its time for us to look at reform. Its time to look at changes. How do we go about getting up to date. Theres no reason we dont do so. I very much looking forward to Witnesses Today and appreciate you being here as we try to consider ways to reform the i. T. Acquisition process and to prevent agencies from trying to reinvent the wheel, particularly when potential solutions already exist in the commercial marketplace. So specifically this committee is interested, i believe, in learning how and what Congress Needs to do to help agencies overcome some of the challenges that are presented by annual funding cycles that frankly makes it very difficult to tackle as it relates to i. T. Modernization. So im hoping today that our witnesses will be able to help this committee understand how we can improve this whole process, in particular the Technology Management fund to help government replace legacy systems. Weve got to become more modern and up to date rather than continuing to rely upon agile old systems. Finally, i think theres got to be some accountability in this whole process to keep agencies responsible for the progress that they are making. Of course there have been many hearings weve already had so the scorecard. Somewhere along the way, there must, it appears to me, be some sort of incentive that must be involved to help agencies come along and to improve. So i look forward to hearing all these types of things as we move forward with the hearing today. I hope youll be able to supply some of these answers. I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today as we participate in the hybrid hearing. Mr. Chairman, with that i yield ba back. Thank you, my friend. He makes good points. Our next hearing is monday. It is the tenth on the implementation. The good news, i think for the First Time Since we passed the bill there are no fs and no ds. But we still have to retire the legacy systems. I think the members. Id like to introduce our first witness, Senior Vice President of policy for Technology Industry council. Also joined by Matthew Cornelius who is here physically, executive director for alliance for digital innovation. Well also hear from steve okeefe, the founder of meretok. Has done a lot to try to translate the scorecard. The director of strategy for new ameri america. If our three witnesses who are remote, if you would rise and raise your righthand. We swear in our witnesses. If the other tee witnesses will raise their righthand. Can you all of you confirm you are doing so. Do you swear or affirm the testimony youre about to give is the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. Let the record show the witnesses have indicated in the affirmative. Thank you. Without objection, written statements will be made a part of the record. We ask all of our witnesses to summarize the testimony within the fiveminute time limit. With that, mr. Bit ko you are recognized for your testimony. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. Atmosphere privilege to discuss federal i. T. Modernization. My name is gordon bitco. Previously kroi at fbi and more than 25 years as experience as technologies and Technology Manager across Public Sectors. Represents i. T. Companies. We believe its more important than ever for u. S. Government to Work Together to support policies that promote effective government through technological leadership. The u. S. Public sector, leadership by adopting policy, commercial products and serviceses, produce security, scalability that supports demand for Digital Services and data. That imperative to modernize is true at every government agency. Ongoing pandemic with fast increase in remote work has accelerated the need for change the ability for federal agencies to switch to telework during the pandemic is a result of transformative activities in the last few yearers. Incremental change, exponential growth, when stressed legacy systems fail catastrophically. We saw this in multiple state unemployment systems but many federal agencies provide Critical Service through all assistance. Quality Service Americans expect and deserve means these systems must modernize. Technological transformation can only happen if consistency and dedication to providing funding and addressing the policies and practices that restrain innovation and modernization with Government Technology. The department of Justice Center consolidation highlights many inhibitors of innovation. Starting in 2014, plan to consolidate three core facilitators but two owned and operated by fbi including newly funded center constructed at an existing center in idaho. Posted in february 2016, groundbreaking occurred in october 2017, opened last november and full operation for this september. It will already be out of date. To years ago consulted boit providing services and already fell short of their technical requirements. A new facility enabling doj to close data centers is progress. Some applications will modernize, never a stateoftheart facility and continue to host legacy systems consisting budgets. Meanwhile invest in modernization will my great to commercial provides and Innovative Technologies and resources that dwarf dojs. Governments limited technical and contract expertise, risk aversion, process inefficiencies unpredictable funding and all contribute to time lines of commercial best practices. At the same time the funding means legacy applications. Fed i. T. Isnt held together by duct tape. There are excellent professionals throughout government delivering quality information capabilities. The reality is it is still too hard for them to get to the front lines and focus on core longterm agency challenges. When government has defined unnecessarily complex requirements based on data business processes, the overhead of customized solution often made them over budget and underused. When the government has welldefined objectives and smartly engaged with industry the result has been successful and Cost Effective commercial services securely provided at speed and scale. Adopting this approach empowers industry to create worldclass for government, drive competition by leveraging standards and encourage innovation by opening markets to new companies, products and services. At the same time i. T. Budget and acquisition processes must evolve to empower federal workforce to leverage capabilities. Transformation change requires longterm strategic and financial commitments. The annual budget cycle forces Agency Planning staff to spend too much time managing budget process and too little making sure projects are well managed and funded. The planning staff needs to adapt Continuous Delivery mind sets. Shouldnt be traditional schedules but outcomes that improve the mission and used both within and outside the agency. Government using tools for managing i. T. Investments such as the fit ara and federal dashboard need to update realities of i. T. Quality. Thank you again for inviting me and i look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Cornelius, youre recognized for five minutes. Chairman connelly, Ranking Members thank you for the opportunity to testify on vitally important topic of i. T. Modernization. My name is Matthew Cornelius, executive director of alliance for innovation. Nonprofit Organization Made up of two dozen leading Technology Companies which focuses on empowering government to limit effective experience citizens deserve. Our companies have a successful track record of modernization and lashlg complex Enterprises Across both public and private sector. We at adi are aware governments reliance fundamentally obstructs a modern, secure, digital government. Today i will share challenges and opportunities agencies face and will offer some recommendations to improve speed, scale, success in modernizing legacy i. T. Prior to adi i served in senior policies roles and General Services administration where i led execution of several key government Wide Technology efforts including i. T. And president s agenda and technology Modernization Fund. I highlight these additional experiences as i believe they provide me with unique understanding of i. T. Modernization i can share with you today. When i describe the governments legacy problem, i want to note it goes far beyond systems decades old. It is a cultural problem both inside government and out. For starters the government is averse to market precious and relies on woefully outdated Business Model that prytizes owning businesses inside agency. In addition little alignment of procurement and Financial Management processes to commercial best practices and agencies rarely have the appropriate in sentives to modernize and partner with truly Innovative Companies to drive mission outcomes. The recent report by Pandemic Response highlighted i. T. And cybersecurity major challenges faced by agencies during response to covid19. The report opinionpointed examples such as health and human services, Nuclear Regulatory commission and department of defense able to deal with significant disruptions of covid19 because they were investing significantly in Cloud Computing and enhanced telework capabilities and digital workflows. Possible because of the commitment to hit Senior Leadership a workforce able to buy and deploy these new technologies and a culture that embraces innovation. Still more can be done. A second key to empowering and accelerating i. T. Modernization is to ensure that agencies can eas