Lugar: Empower USDA's CIO

THE DAILY FED

Lugar: Empower USDA's CIO

A bill introduced in the Senate would give control over the information technology budgets of all 30 agencies within the Agriculture Department to one person: USDA's chief information officer.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., introduced legislation (S 805) May 23 that would give the CIO the authority to approve or disapprove all purchases for telecommunications and computers in USDA agencies, including the Forest Service and the Farm Service Agency. Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said information technology investments at USDA are poorly planned, wasteful and redundant.

"Each agency of the department protects its own turf and budget, and is reluctant to coordinate its IT planning and purchases with other agencies," Lugar said.

The General Accounting Office has reported that USDA has spent $8 billion in the past 10 years on information technology, much of it on redundant and incompatible systems.

USDA will spend $1.25 billion on IT in fiscal 1998, the Office of Management and Budget estimates. Lugar's bill would transfer 10 percent of all USDA agencies' appropriations for IT to the CIO's account. The CIO would release the money back to agencies after reviewing their investment strategies.

USDA's current CIO is Anne Reed.

Lugar said the CIO must be given more power if she is to carry out her job successfully. Every major agency in the government hired a CIO in response to the 1996 Information Technology Management Reform Act, also known as the Clinger-Cohen Act. Some critics of the act say CIOs were not given the tools they need to manage departmentwide IT programming.

"USDA's CIO has the responsibility to coordinate IT investments across agencies, but lacks the planning and budgeting authority to meet this responsibility," Lugar said.

Under Lugar's bill, the CIO would be given sub-Cabinet rank and report directly to the Agriculture Secretary.

A Senate Agriculture Committee aide told the Bureau of National Affairs, a Washington newsletter firm, that the legislation could serve as a model other agencies could use to give their CIOs more muscle.