Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Federal IT Systems Corona

CSPAN3 Hearing On Federal IT Systems Coronavirus Pandemic July 12, 2024

Hearing will come to order. I welcome everybody to this hybrid hearing. Both Ranking Member mister heiss and myself have wanted to have hearings resume in person. Especially when we are in session i made a promise to mister heiss that i would fight for that and today is the fruit of that effort i believe when we were in session, to the extent possible, protecting everybodys health and safety, we can and should be meeting like this. At least in hybrid form those members who are not comfortable or who physically cannot join us in the hearing room are more than welcome to join us through the web. We are happy to have them. We ask everybody, when they are not speaking, to wear a mask that is the guidance and the capitol hill position. That is the guidance of the chairwoman of this committee. It protects everybody i really appreciate that cooperation. Let me see. For members appearing remotely, just a few reminders before i get my Opening Statement. House rules require that we see you so please have your cameras turned on at all times during the course of the hearing members who are not recognized should remain muted so we minimize background noise and feedback i will recognize members verbally and members retain the right to seek recognition through either our staff or have your staff contact our staff and we will be glad to make sure you get recognized you can use the chat function to send a request. If none of all of that works, you can unmute your mic and seek recognition we will try to minimize people talking over each other these are not 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 a number of our colleagues and staff members, capitol hill police, have come down with the virus we dont want to do anything unwittingly that could spread that contagion so, we will do everything we can to make sure this is a safe environment in which to operate. With that, i recognize myself for my Opening Statement. The federal governments response to the pandemic has exposed some fundamental weaknesses that have to be fixed especially legacy ip systems throughout this Global Health crisis, millions of americans facing illness, unemployment, Food Insecurity and an inability to pay their mortgages or rent have looked to the federal government for help. Yet despite urgent congressional action in providing unprecedented levels of economic assistance, those indeed have often had their misery exacerbated by broken ip infrastructures at the federal and state level that have prevented them from receiving timely support. The cares act, which was overwhelmingly passed on a bipartisan paces by this congress, with signed into law on march 27th it is now july 20th. We still do not have the post pull more them on the failures of the Small Business administration the trans system, tasked with facilitating more than 750 billion dollars in Small Business loans and grants. The Internal Revenue service has yet to deliver tens of millions of Economic Impact payments. In my home state of virginia, certain types of unemployment claims will not be available until august due to the states failure to update its ip systems. The Public Policy response was there, but our i. T. Systems often could not deliver. In other words, the fate of the Worlds Largest economy rises and falls often with the ability of government i. T. Systems to deliver. In an emergency. That should galvanize us all. It has been reported the 21 Million People were unable to receive their cares act stimulus payments because irs could not find accurate direct deposit information. Hundreds of thousands of Small Businesses were shut 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. That is a big problem. We are looking at 31 Million People on an ongoing basis we depend on the unemployment check every week. Issues with legacy i. T. Systems are not news to us on this committee. We enacted the federal Information Technology acquisition reform act, of which i was a proud coop author, to help federal agencies prioritize federal i. T. Monetization. The modernizing Government Technology act also coming out of this committee, was passed to enable agencies to establish work in Capital Funds to help them use savings from my team monetization in order to further invest integrated agile systems and transition away from those legacy systems. Legacy systems that are often 30 and 40 years old. The law also created, coming out of this committee again, the technology monetization fund which established a government Funding Source for agencies to remove and replace those legacy systems and upgrade their own. Yet the team f remains chronically underfunded. And outgoing chief Information Officer, suzanne cant, has identified as underfunding as illustrative of the small board thinking that unfortunately has prevailed when it comes to making key investments. Agencies responsible for performing critical government functions operate on legacy systems with components, sometimes dating back even 50 years. The Government Accountability office found that the ten most critical federal legacy ip systems in need a modernization are maintained by ten different federal agencies. Each performing essential Government Operations. As they age, these legacy systems will become more expensive to maintain, more vulnerable to cyberattacks, less effective in accomplishing Agency Missions if the most public alert and Warning System fails, millions of lives could be lost during a Natural Disaster because lifesaving information was not delivered to the public and time. If the department of the interior system that monitors power plants installs, 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 representing federal workers in the subcommittee hearing two weeks ago, agencies have been able to leverage telework to ensure the continuity of Government Operations while also protecting the health and safety of federal workers nonetheless, the largescale shift to teleworking exposed critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities underlying that outdated i. T. Since the pandemic hit, Inspector General have reported in the increased risk of Data Security 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 prioritize 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 on block group of amendments, our bill that came out of this committee is included. In 2019, 13 agencies reported to ge oh that they achieved at least 291 billion dollars in savings from increasing their investments in cloud technologies. I hope we can continue to advance the bipartisan fed ramp authorization act that passed by voice vote and signed into law by the president on a bipartisan basis modern reliable i. T. Is not just a nice thing to have. Our federal governments consistent failure to prioritize i modernization and Program Delivery prevented the public from receiving the assistance congress authorized to help the nation whether the worst Global Pandemic and 100 years. We can no longer allow outdated legacy technologies to stymie the delivery of vital public services. We will need to rip out route route and stem a system that has hung around for decades because the replacement costs have been prohibitively expensive. If doing so is a matter of being able to save the American Economy from collapse, almost anything is cheap by comparison. With that, i call upon the distinguished Ranking Member for his five minute Opening Statement. Thank you very much mister chairman. I appreciate a great deal you working with us to make this hearing happen. Im really grateful for that. I would say though that guidance to wear masks or one thing and Committee Rules are another. There is no question that in this room right here, we are well beyond the guidance the dccc recommends. We have had some who are not here today because they feel as though we are too strict and the requirement of the mask. 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 the hearings within the cdc guidelines as well. As i have on having a hearing physically, i will work as diligently as i can with him. I will, however note, that the committee is falling bigots of the capitol hill physician who more than strongly recommends the wearing of a mask. Its not just cdc guidance. We also well, so we will try to work with that with you and i really appreciate all of my colleagues trying to respect everybodys health and safety today. Right. I know you will and i look forward to those further conversations. On behalf of those who feel a little bit differently, i would appreciate that continuing conversation. Thank you very much. I would also appreciate, mister chairman, the fact of you holding this particular hearing on federal i. T. Modernization i think we are all very much aware of the need for modernization in this area. The lack thereof certainly exposes us to security risks as well as the inability for flexibility and scaling up. And ultimately, our agencies are incapable of meeting in the needs and responsibilities they are required to do and yet, we as a government, continue to spend a majority of our budget on maintaining these legacy systems rather than taking us into the new era of computer needs. For example, from 2010 to 2017, over 450 billion dollars was spent just to keep legacy systems running. Of course, that also represents 450 billion dollars that was not able to be used for new technology. At the same time, of Course Technology continues to move forward and improve while we are slow to procure any new capabilities whatsoever. So its time for us to look at reform, its time for us to look at changes. How do we go about getting up to date . Theres no reason that we dont do so. I very much look forward to our 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. Specifically, this committee is interested, i believe, and 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 im hoping today that our witnesses will be able to help this committee understand how we can improve this whole process. Particularly the Technology Management fund to help government replace legacy systems we have to become more modern and uptodate rather than continuing to rely upon old systems finally, i think there must 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 that weve already had on the pretoria scorecard somewhere along the way though, it appears to me there must be some sort of incentive that must be involved to help agencies come along and improve. So i look forward to hearing all these types of things as we move forward with the hearing today and i am hopeful that you will be able to supply some of those answers. I want to, again, thank all of our witnesses for being here today as we participate in this hybrid hearing. Mister chairman, with that i yield back. I think my friend and he makes some very good points. Our next hearing is monday. It is the tenth hearing we will have had on the implementation of a tory. The good news is, i think for the First Time Since we passed the bill, there are no deaths and no decrease in the scorecards so we have made some progress but, we still have to retire those legacy systems we were talking about. That is going to require some finesse. So i thank the distinguished Ranking Member. I would like to introduce our witnesses our first witness today is gordon but go whose Senior Vice President of policy for the Information Technology Industry Council we are also joined by matthew corny liam is here physically. The director for the digital alliance. We will hear from steve okeefe who is someone who is the inspiration for the fed rap legislation and has done a lot to try and translate the photographer scorecard into more digestible ways that have been very helpful. Our final witness will be hunted shank was the director of strategy for new america. If our three witnesses who are remote and mr. Chameleons if you would rise and raise your right hand its the practice of our committee to swear in our witnesses. The other three witnesses can raise their right hand. Can all of you confirm that you are doing so . Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Let the records show that the witnesses have indicated in the affirmative. Thank you without objection, written statements will be made on part of the record we ask all of our witnesses to try and summarize their testimony within the five minute time limit. With that, mr. It go you are recognized for your testimony. Hice. Previously, i was the ceo at the fbi for three half years. I had more than 25 years of experience as a technologist and Technology Manager across the public and private sectors. I tie represents more than 70 leading i. T. Companies. We believe it is more important than ever for the u. S. Government and our Member Companies to Work Together in support of policies that promote effective government through technological leadership. The u. S. Public sector must leverage this innovation and leadership by adopting policies that enable easier use of commercial products and services that provide security, agility, scale ability and elasticity that supports the Enormous Growth and demand for Digital Services and data. That imperative to modernize is true of every Government Agency with the ongoing pandemic, it has only accelerated the need for change the need for largescale agencies to ship to tell where during the pandemic, is result a transformative activities in recent years. Incremental change is insufficient in the face of exponential growth when stressed enough, legacy systems fail catastrophic lee we saw this in multiple state of unemployment systems, but many federal agencies also provide federal Critical Services providing the High Quality Services that americans expect means these systems must modernize. We must address the policies and practices the restrain modernization in government i. T. Technology the department of justice highlights many inhibitors of innovation. Starting in 2014, doj planned to consolidate three core facilities with two owned and operated by the fbi, included a newlyfunded center in an existing facility in idaho. He was posted in february of 2016. Full operation is scheduled for the september it will already be out of date two years ago, a commercial providers consulted about providing Services Using a facility to climbed that already fell short of their technical requirements. The new facility enabled doj to close multiple data centers is progress. Data Center Metrics will improve and some applications will modernize. However, it will never be a stateoftheart facility and will continue to host a legacy systems. Meanwhile, systems able to invest in modernization will lead to Innovative Technologies and resources have worked dojs. Governments limited technological and expertise, and predictable funding and inflexible construction processes all contribute to timelines much longer than commercial best practices. At the same time the lack of multiyear i. T. Modernization funding means legacy applications endure. Federal i. T. Isnt held together by duct tape there are excellent professionals throughout government delivering quality Information Technologies the realit

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