Unlocking Government Efficiency Through IT Modernization
House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation
2025-04-29
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
All right. The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation will come to order and welcome everyone. Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time, and I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for this discussion on federal IT modernization. An important role of this subcommittee is to ensure proper management of federal technology. The Trump administration and the U.S. DOGE service and their efforts to make the government more efficient have prioritized modernizing government technology because they have rightly identified federal IT as the backbone for all government programs, operations, and of course spending. Federal IT systems enable everything the government does, from the national defense and homeland security to the administration of benefit programs. And when these systems are outdated, obsolete, and unreliable, the government cannot carry out these duties responsibly or efficiently. The federal government spends more than $100 billion annually on IT systems, with almost 80% of the spending going toward operating and maintaining them, including many legacy systems. These legacy systems, which are built on unsupported software or hardware and rely on outdated data centers or coding languages such as COBOL, a language I learned 25 years ago plus, create dangerous security and operational environments and are costly to maintain. A few years ago, GAO compiled a list of the 10 federal IT systems most in need of overhaul due to their criticality and their obsolescence. One is a COBOL-based system used to process about 20 million federal student financial and aid applications annually. The system is older than the Department of Education, which opened its doors in 1980. I learned COBOL early in my career because coding provides a pathway for girls and women to advance into STEM fields. I actually taught myself to code. But today's aspiring coders are not learning COBOL.
That's why on his first day in office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14158, titled Establishing and Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency. This executive order established DOGE through a reorganization of what was formerly known as the U.S. Digital Service, an entity this subcommittee has collaborated with on a bipartisan basis for many years to promote IT modernization. The Trump executive order includes a requirement for the U.S. DOGE service to work with agency heads to promote interoperability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization. This directive prioritizes efforts aligned with long-time industry best practices and expert recommendations for IT modernization. It also elevates the work USDS has been doing across the three previous administrations under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. Today, we're here to celebrate the progress that has been made to modernize government technology, review the approaches that have worked, and discuss how the current Trump administration and the renewed USDS can aggressively prioritize proven solutions so we can finally make real progress in building efficient and effective federal IT. To this end, we're joined by three of the most senior technology leaders from the first Trump administration. Ms. Kent, Ms. Graves, and Ms. Roat, you served at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and helped oversee the start of the federal government shift to remote work. During this time, we learned a lot of processes were also paper-based and arcane. They couldn't be carried out digitally, which is a wild and crazy... fact that this was happening. The lack of resiliency in government operations created drastic consequences for our constituents who couldn't connect with government offices to receive benefits or file required paperwork. I'm looking forward to hearing from you all today about what you learned during this unique time in your government service. And it's my understanding that this is your first time all testifying together on the same panel.
Thanks for being here today. Speaking of proven solutions, during the Trump administration, the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 was signed into law. This act established the Technology Modernization Fund, or TMF, which creates a unique funding vehicle that can be used to improve, retire, or replace federal IT systems. The TMF is a necessary piece of IT modernization puzzle. Without it, the unpredictability and the annual budget cycle would make it too difficult for some modernization projects to get off the ground. Last week, I reintroduced the Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act alongside Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jerry Connolly. This bill reforms and reauthorizes the TMFs so that it can continue to be used to assist with IT modernization initiatives moving forward. With that, I recognize the Ranking Member Brown for her opening statement.
Thank you, Chairwoman Mace, for holding this important hearing. The federal government has long been behind the curve in modernizing its IT systems. We can all agree on the urgent need to bring these systems into the 21st century to strengthen our cybersecurity infrastructure, enhance customer service for the American people, and keep pace with the rapidly evolving cyber landscape. Since 2015, the Government Accountability Office has repeatedly warned about the federal government's over-reliance on aging, vulnerable legacy IT systems, emphasizing that improving the management of IT acquisition and operations must be a top priority. Today, nearly 80% of the billions of dollars the federal government spends annually on IT is dedicated to operating and maintaining outdated systems, many of which are increasingly susceptible to cybersecurity threats.
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