House Oversight Leaders Find rare Bipartisan Agreement on IT Reform

One key to rationalizing the way information technology is managed in government is to mandate transparency about what agencies are buying and from whom, said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who appeared onstage with Rep Issa at Nextgov Prime, agreed.

“Off the shelf software for agency X, identical to that same software for agency Y, ought not to be proprietary information,” Rep Connolly said. “Right now, often, it is. The same company selling the same software to two agencies can insist that one agency can’t know what the other one is paying for it. And it is not uncommon, as Darrell indicated, that, as a result, we have 24 different price structures for the same item.” Rep Issa has proposed legislation to reform federal information technology acquisitions that, among other things, would urge agencies to use open source software when possible. A coalition of industry groups criticized that provision and others in an open letter to Issa Friday, saying they could not endorse the legislation in its current form.