Tech Experts Eye Inclusion of TMF Usage in FITARA Scorecard

The House Government Operations Subcommittee has received suggestions to include agencies’ use of grants from the Technology Modernization Fund in the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard.

Kevin Walsh, director of the IT and cybersecurity team at the Government Accountability Office, told members of the subcommittee that while not every agency will benefit from the recent $1 billion TMF budget increase, those that do could somehow be rewarded on the FITARA scorecard, FedScoop reported.

According to Walsh, the TMF could facilitate agencies’ modernization of legacy systems if used effectively.

“The challenge is going to be ramping up that team that manages the TMF to make sure that they have the expertise necessary to oversee these projects,” he said.

Joe Flynn, public sector chief technology officer at tech company Boomi, doubled down on the potential inclusion of TMF into the scorecard. Flynn told FedScoop that the subcommittee might start looking at how agencies utilize the TMF, noting that there could be uncertainties about the future of the funding vehicle if its billion-dollar budget were not maximized.

He added that the Government Operations Subcommittee could expand the scorecard’s cyber category in light of the SolarWinds hack and factor in agencies’ implementation of the Federal Data Strategy.

The subcommittee uses the FITARA scorecard to measure federal agencies’ performance on seven information technology categories, including agency CIO authority enhancements, transparency and risk management, cyber and data center optimization initiatives.

The Department of Labor achieved top marks on the latest FITARA scorecard. It was the lone agency to receive A grades in six of seven IT categories.