The leaders of a House information technology panel reintroduced legislation Friday to elevate the role of the federal chief information officer needed to improve authorities to oversee digital security efforts across the government.
Reps. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas) introduced their Federal CIO Authorization Act, which passed unanimously out of the House in November but did not receive a Senate vote before the end of the last Congress.
“This bill helps keep the vast information stored by the federal government secure from hackers by making clear that the Federal CIO is in charge of the security of our data across the government,” Hurd said in a statement. “I am proud to introduce this bill with my friend Rep. Robin Kelly so we can continue to work toward finally catching our federal government up with the 21st century.”
The bill would designate the federal CIO as a presidential appointee who would directly report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Under the legislation, the federal chief information security officer would also become a presidential appointee and would report to the CIO.
“Reauthorizing and codifying the roles of the Federal CIO and CISO will help streamline government IT processes and advance modernization efforts to bring government into the 21st century. This commonsense, bipartisan legislation to increase government effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness unanimously passed the House during the 115th Congress; we need to get this done in the 116th Congress,” Kelly said in a statement.
The bill also directs the federal CIO to submit a report to Congress detailing plans to consolidate and streamline IT across the agencies.