I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5255 

To enhance the procurement of information technology by establishing a 

United States Digital Government Office and United States Chief Information Officer, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 30, 2014 

Ms. ESHOO (for herself, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. HANNA, Mr. SWALWELL of California, and Ms. DELBENE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

To enhance the procurement of information technology by 

establishing a United States Digital Government Office 

and United States Chief Information Officer, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Reforming Federal Procurement of Information Tech6 nology Act’’ or ‘‘RFP–IT Act’’. 

7 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

8 this Act is as follows: 


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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Increase in simplified acquisition threshold for information technology 

projects. 

Sec. 3. Permanent authority for use of simplified acquisition procedures for certain commercial items. 

Sec. 4. Presidential Innovation Fellows Program. 

Sec. 5. Redesignation of Office and Administrator of Electronic Government as 

United States Digital Government Office and United States 

Chief Information Officer. 

Sec. 6. Digital Service Pilot Program. 

Sec. 7. Analysis and report on streamlining and strengthening IT Schedule 70. 

Sec. 8. Report by Government Accountability Office on information technology 

acquisition by the Federal Government. 

Sec. 9. Improving the quality of information technology solicitations. 

Sec. 10. FAR Council membership for Administrator of Small Business Administration. 

1 SEC. 2. INCREASE IN SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESH2 OLD FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 

3 PROJECTS. 

4 (a) INCREASE.—Section 134 of title 41, United 

5 States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘means $100,000.’’ 

6 and inserting the following: ‘‘means— 

7 ‘‘(1) $100,000; or 

8 ‘‘(2) in the case of a contract for the purchase 

9 of information technology (as such term is defined in 

10 section 11101 of title 40) services from a small busi11 ness concern (as such term is defined in section 3(a) 

12 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)), 

13 $500,000.’’. 

14 (b) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in the amendment 

15 made by subsection (a) shall be construed as affecting ad16 justments made by, or the authority of, the Federal Acqui17 sition Regulatory Council under section 1908 of title 41, 


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1 United States Code (relating to inflation adjustment of ac2 quisition-related dollar thresholds). 

3 SEC. 3. PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR USE OF SIMPLIFIED 

4 ACQUISITION PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN 

5 COMMERCIAL ITEMS. 

6 Section 4202 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (divi7 sion D of Public Law 104–106; 10 U.S.C. 2304 note) is 

8 amended by striking subsection (e). 

9 SEC. 4. PRESIDENTIAL INNOVATION FELLOWS PROGRAM. 

10 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 

11 the General Services Administration a program to be 

12 known as the ‘‘Presidential Innovation Fellows Program’’ 

13 (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Program’’). 

14 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Program is to 

15 bridge the gap between the private sector and the public 

16 sector by bringing non-Government innovators into the 

17 Government to work collaboratively for a period of time 

18 with Government innovators in order to rapidly solve chal19 lenges of national importance. 

20 (c) ADMINISTRATION.—The Administrator of Gen21 eral Services shall administer the Program. 

22 (d) FELLOWS.— 

23 (1) SELECTION OF FELLOWS.—The Adminis24 trator of General Services shall select Presidential 

25 Innovation Fellows for participation in the Program. 


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1 (2) LENGTH OF FELLOWSHIPS.—Each fellow2 ship in the Program shall last 6 to 13 months, at 

3 the discretion of the Administrator of General Serv4 ices. 

5 (3) QUALIFICATIONS.—In order to participate 

6 in the Program, a candidate for fellow shall be a cit7 izen of the United States and able to fulfill the du8 ties of the role for which the candidate applies. 

9 SEC. 5. REDESIGNATION OF OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATOR 

10 OF ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT AS UNITED 

11 STATES DIGITAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE AND 

12 UNITED STATES CHIEF INFORMATION OFFI13 CER. 

14 (a) REDESIGNATION OF OFFICE AS UNITED STATES

15 DIGITAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE.—Section 3602(a) of title 

16 44, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Office 

17 of Electronic Government’’ and inserting ‘‘an office to be 

18 known as the ‘United States Digital Government Office’ 

19 or ‘United States DGO’ ’’. 

20 (b) REDESIGNATION OF HEAD OF OFFICE AS

21 UNITED STATES CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER.—Sec22 tion 3602(b) of such title is amended to read as follows: 

23 ‘‘(b) There shall be at the head of the office an officer 

24 who shall be known as the United States Chief Informa25 tion Officer (referred to in this section as the ‘United 


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1 States CIO’), appointed by the President by and with the 

2 advice and consent of the Senate. The Director shall dele3 gate to the United States CIO the authority to administer 

4 all functions set forth in this section or any other applica5 ble law, except that any such delegation shall not relieve 

6 the Director of responsibility for the administration of 

7 such functions. The United States CIO shall serve as prin8 cipal adviser to the Director on Federal information tech9 nology policy.’’. 

10 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 3602 of 

11 such title is further amended— 

12 (1) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘Adminis13 trator’’ and inserting ‘‘United States CIO’’; 

14 (2) in subsections (d), (e), and (f), by striking 

15 ‘‘Administrator’’ the first place it appears and in16 serting ‘‘United States CIO’’; and 

17 (3) in subsections (f)(16) and (g), by striking 

18 ‘‘Office of Electronic Government’’ and inserting 

19 ‘‘United States Digital Government Office’’. 

20 (d) REFERENCES.—As of the date of the enactment 

21 of this Act, any reference in law or regulation to the Office 

22 of Electronic Government and the Administrator of the 

23 Office of Electronic Government shall be deemed to refer 

24 to the United States Digital Government Office and the 

25 United States Chief Information Officer, respectively. 


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1 SEC. 6. DIGITAL SERVICE PILOT PROGRAM. 

2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 

3 the United States Digital Government Office a pilot pro4 gram to be known as the ‘‘Digital Service Pilot Program’’ 

5 (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Pilot Program’’). 

6 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Pilot Program is 

7 to provide digital service experts to support executive 

8 agencies on high-priority Federal information technology 

9 projects. The Pilot Program shall be carried out in accord10 ance with this section and may include the initiative in 

11 the Office of Management and Budget to provide such dig12 ital service experts. 

13 (c) HEAD OF DIGITAL SERVICE PILOT PROGRAM.— 

14 The United States Chief Information Officer shall admin15 ister the Pilot Program. 

16 (d) PROJECTS.— 

17 (1) MINIMUM NUMBER.—During the three-year 

18 period beginning on the date of the enactment of 

19 this Act, the Pilot Program shall initiate and com20 plete no fewer than five high-priority Federal infor21 mation technology projects in partnership with exec22 utive agencies. 

23 (2) SPECIFIC AGENCY PROJECTS.—Of the 

24 projects required under this subsection, at least one 

25 project shall be initiated in each of the following en26 tities: 


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1 (A) The Office of Management and Budg2 et. 

3 (B) The General Services Administration. 

4 (C) The Department of Homeland Secu5 rity. 

6 (D) The Department of Veterans Affairs. 

7 (E) The Small Business Administration. 

8 (e) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘execu9 tive agency’’ has the meaning provided that term by sec10 tion 105 of title 5, United States Code. 

11 SEC. 7. ANALYSIS AND REPORT ON STREAMLINING AND 

12 STRENGTHENING IT SCHEDULE 70. 

13 (a) ANALYSIS REQUIREMENT.—The Administrator of 

14 General Services shall conduct an in-depth analysis of IT 

15 Schedule 70. The analysis shall cover, at a minimum, the 

16 following: 

17 (1) Methods to enhance the administration of 

18 IT Schedule 70. 

19 (2) Identification of the most onerous or bur20 densome requirements related to using IT Schedule 

21 70. 

22 (3) Methods to lower barriers to entry to using 

23 IT Schedule 70, to ensure that innovative informa24 tion technology firms are not discouraged by super25 fluous or unnecessary barriers. 


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1 (4) Ways to ensure that the Federal Govern2 ment has direct access to the Nation’s most innova3 tive technology firms, which includes attracting com4 panies that operate solely in the commercial market5 place. 

6 (b) REPORT REQUIREMENT.—The Administrator 

7 shall submit to Congress a report on the analysis con8 ducted under subsection (a), not later than 365 days after 

9 the date of the enactment of this Act. The report shall 

10 include the results of the analysis and specific rec11 ommendations on potential administrative and statutory 

12 modifications that would eliminate or fix any problems 

13 identified in the report. 

14 (c) IT SCHEDULE 70 DEFINED.—In this section, the 

15 term ‘‘IT Schedule 70’’ means the multiple award supply 

16 schedule of the General Services Administration for the 

17 procurement of information technology. 

18 SEC. 8. REPORT BY GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OF19 FICE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACQUI20 SITION BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

21 (a) REPORT REQUIREMENT.—The Comptroller Gen22 eral of the United States shall submit to Congress one 

23 or more reports on the following: 

24 (1) The effectiveness of the 18F program of the 

25 General Services Administration. 


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1 (2) IT Schedule 70 (as defined in section 7), in2 cluding the manner in which the Schedule does or 

3 does not enable agencies to have access to effective, 

4 up-to-date technology at competitive prices from the 

5 best technology firms. 

6 (3) Challenges and barriers to entry for small 

7 business technology firms, including the reasons why 

8 certain small business technology firms that are suc9 cessful in the private sector decide not to enter the 

10 Federal marketplace. 

11 (b) DEADLINE.—The Comptroller General shall sub12 mit a report or reports under subsection (a) not later than 

13 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

14 SEC. 9. IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION TECH15 NOLOGY SOLICITATIONS. 

16 (a) ENHANCED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GOV17 ERNMENT AND INDUSTRY.—Not later than 180 days after 

18 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Acquisi19 tion Regulation shall be revised to clarify that agency ac20 quisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to en21 gage in responsible and constructive exchanges with indus22 try, so long as those exchanges are consistent with existing 

23 law and regulation and do not promote an unfair competi24 tive advantage to particular firms. 


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1 (b) PRIORITY GOAL FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2 MANAGEMENT.—The United States Chief Information Of3 ficer, in consultation with the Administrator for Federal 

4 Procurement Policy, shall advise the Director of the Office 

5 of Management and Budget to ensure that the priority 

6 goal for the Federal Government relating to information 

7 technology management under section 1120(a)(1)(B)(iii) 

8 of title 31, United States Code, addresses improving the 

9 performance of Federal agencies in development specifica10 tions for a contract for an information technology project. 

11 SEC. 10. FAR COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP FOR ADMINISTRATOR 

12 OF SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. 

13 (a) ADDITION OF ADMINISTRATOR OF SMALL BUSI14 NESS ADMINISTRATION TO FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGU15 LATORY COUNCIL.—Section 1302(b) of title 41, United 

16 States Code, is amended— 

17 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara18 graph (C); 

19 (2) by striking the period and inserting ‘‘; and’’ 

20 at the end of subparagraph (D); and 

21 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub22 paragraph: 

23 ‘‘(E) the Administrator of the Small Busi24 ness Administration.’’. 


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1 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 

2 1303(a)(1) of such title is amended— 

3 (1) by striking ‘‘and the Administrator of Na4 tional Aeronautics and Space,’’ and inserting ‘‘the 

5 Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space, 

6 and the Administrator of the Small Business Admin7 istration,’’; and 

8 (2) by striking ‘‘and the National Aeronautics 

9 and Space Act of 1958 (42 U.S.C. 2451 et seq.),’’ 

10 and inserting ‘‘the National Aeronautics and Space 

11 Act of 1958 (42 U.S.C. 2451 et seq.), and the Small 

12 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.),’’. 

Æ 


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