Fed IT Reform Bill Introduced In Senate, Spurred By Healthcare.Gov

A bipartisan team of senators introduced legislation that would overhaul how the government buys and builds information technology systems.

The move from Sens Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) was spawned in part by the abysmal performance of the Obama Administration’s online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov, which was largely out of commission for the first month after its Oct 1 launch. A co-sponsor of the House bill passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier and still awaiting action from the full House, Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA), has predicted the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act would have a strong chance of passing given public attention to HealthCare.gov’s poor performance. “The systemically flawed rollout of HealthCare.gov is one high-profile example of IT procurement failures, but numerous more projects incur cost overruns, project delays and are abandoned altogether,” Sen Moran said.