Consensus emerges on need for federal CIO

Government officials and policy analysts agreed Tuesday on the need for a central chief information officer to handle federal information technology policy and initiatives, but the issue of who can handle the responsibility remained unclear.

Sponsors of two bills that would establish a federal CIO in different capacities said Tuesday that the responsibility should not lie with the Office of Management and Budget, saying that the agency already is overburdened and is not able to effectively carry out its own technology initiatives.

Government, Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Steve Horn, R-Calif., denounced OMB's stance that any management and budget issues having to do with information technology should remain within the agency, saying that its computer security grade of a "D-" -which he assigned to federal agencies this week-is proof that the agency cannot handle its current job, which is oversight of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money.

But OMB Deputy Director Sally Katzen said, "what I hear, is that they [agencies] thought the grades were pretty tough" and that OMB's continuous requests for more funding for IT initiatives have not been heard.

Horn suggested that OMB "pull the plug on a few things." He added that "not one person under oath in this room [Monday] disagreed with any of the grades."

A bill introduced by Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, would create a small office modeled after the President's Council On Year 2000 Conversion and would have a CIO as an adviser and visionary for IT management.

H.R. 5024, the Federal Information Policy Act of 2000, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., would create a larger office that would assume many of the responsibilities currently performed by OMB, and would encompass all IT management functions that rely on technology within the federal government. It also would create an Office of Information Security and Technical Protection (IN STEP). The bill would give IN STEP the responsibility for developing a federal framework for devising and implementing mandatory controls over government information security.

Both bills would give the CIO top-level authority and direct access to the President, and would codify the Federal CIO Council.

But Katzen argued that the Clinger-Cohen Act places the responsibility for managing IT investment on agency heads, and that taking budget and management issues for IT policy out of the hands of OMB is like "taking the oranges out of orange juice."

Despite the arguments, Davis, Turner and Katzen agreed that the bills should not be moved through Congress before the November elections so that the incoming president has a chance to weigh in on the issue. Both Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Al Gore have expressed support for a federal CIO. Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has also called for the position, and has also suggested tightening federal IT oversight in his Government Information Security Act of 1999.