118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 1695 

AN ACT 

To improve the visibility, accountability, and oversight of 

agency software asset management practices, 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, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Agency 

3 Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act: 

6 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis7 trator’’ means the Administrator of General Serv8 ices. 

9 (2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 

10 meaning given that term in section 3502 of title 44, 

11 United States Code, except that such term does not 

12 include an element of the intelligence community. 

13 (3) CLOUD COMPUTING.—The term ‘‘cloud 

14 computing’’ has the meaning given the term in Spe15 cial Publication 800–145 of the National Institute of 

16 Standards and Technology, or any successor docu17 ment. 

18 (4) CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER.—The term 

19 ‘‘cloud service provider’’ has the meaning given the 

20 term in section 3607(b) of title 44, United States 

21 Code. 

22 (5) COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT.—The term 

23 ‘‘comprehensive assessment’’ means a comprehensive 

24 assessment conducted pursuant to section 3(a). 
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1 (6) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

2 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg3 et. 

4 (7) INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.—The term 

5 ‘‘intelligence community’’ has the meaning given the 

6 term in section 3 of the National Security Act of 

7 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003). 

8 (8) PLAN.—The term ‘‘plan’’ means the plan 

9 developed by a Chief Information Officer, or equiva10 lent official, pursuant to section 4(a). 

11 (9) SOFTWARE ENTITLEMENT.—The term 

12 ‘‘software entitlement’’ means any software that— 

13 (A) has been purchased, leased, or licensed 

14 by or billed to an agency under any contract or 

15 other business arrangement; and 

16 (B) is subject to use limitations. 

17 (10) SOFTWARE INVENTORY.—The term ‘‘soft18 ware inventory’’ means the software inventory of an 

19 agency required pursuant to— 

20 (A) section 2(b)(2)(A) of the Making Elec21 tronic Government Accountable By Yielding 

22 Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2016 (40 U.S.C. 

23 11302 note; Public Law 114–210); or 

24 (B) subsequent guidance issued by the Di25 rector pursuant to that Act. 
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1 SEC. 3. SOFTWARE INVENTORY UPDATE AND EXPANSION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—As soon as practicable, and not 

3 later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this 

4 Act, the Chief Information Officer of each agency, in con5 sultation with the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Ac6 quisition Officer, the Chief Data Officer, and General 

7 Counsel of the agency, or the equivalent officials of the 

8 agency, shall complete a comprehensive assessment of the 

9 software paid for by, in use at, or deployed throughout 

10 the agency, which shall include— 

11 (1) the current software inventory of the agen12 cy, including software entitlements, contracts and 

13 other agreements or arrangements of the agency, 

14 and a list of the largest software entitlements of the 

15 agency separated by provider and category of soft16 ware; 

17 (2) a comprehensive, detailed accounting of— 

18 (A) any software used by or deployed with19 in the agency, including software developed or 

20 built by the agency, or by another agency for 

21 use by the agency, including shared services, as 

22 of the date of the comprehensive assessment, 

23 including, to the extent identifiable, the con24 tracts and other agreements or arrangements 

25 used by the agency to acquire, build, deploy, or 

26 use such software; 
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1 (B) information and data on software enti2 tlements, which shall include information on 

3 any additional fees or costs, including fees or 

4 costs for the use of cloud services, that are not 

5 included in the initial costs of the contract, 

6 agreement, or arrangement— 

7 (i) for which the agency pays; 

8 (ii) that are not deployed or in use by 

9 the agency; and 

10 (iii) that are billed to the agency 

11 under any contract or business arrange12 ment that creates duplication, or are other13 wise determined to be unnecessary by the 

14 Chief Information Officer of the agency, or 

15 the equivalent official, in the deployment 

16 or use by the agency; and 

17 (C) the extent— 

18 (i) to which any software paid for, in 

19 use, or deployed throughout the agency is 

20 interoperable; and 

21 (ii) of the efforts of the agency to im22 prove interoperability of software assets 

23 throughout the agency enterprise; 

24 (3) a categorization of software entitlements of 

25 the agency by cost, volume, and type of software; 
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1 (4) a list of any provisions in the software enti2 tlements of the agency that may restrict how the 

3 software can be deployed, accessed, or used, includ4 ing any such restrictions on desktop or server hard5 ware, through a cloud service provider, or on data 

6 ownership or access; and 

7 (5) an analysis addressing— 

8 (A) the accuracy and completeness of the 

9 comprehensive assessment; 

10 (B) agency management of and compliance 

11 with all contracts or other agreements or ar12 rangements that include or reference software 

13 entitlements or software management within 

14 the agency; 

15 (C) the extent to which the agency accu16 rately captures the total cost of software enti17 tlements and related costs, including the total 

18 cost of upgrades over the life of a contract, 

19 cloud usage costs, and any other cost associated 

20 with the maintenance or servicing of contracts; 

21 and 

22 (D) compliance with software license man23 agement policies of the agency. 

24 (b) CONTRACT SUPPORT.— 
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1 (1) AUTHORITY.—The head of an agency may 

2 enter into 1 or more contracts to support the re3 quirements of subsection (a). 

4 (2) NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST.—Contracts 

5 under paragraph (1) shall not include contractors 

6 with organizational conflicts of interest, within the 

7 meaning given that term under subpart 9.5 of the 

8 Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

9 (3) OPERATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.—Over the 

10 course of a comprehensive assessment, contractors 

11 hired pursuant to paragraph (1) shall maintain oper12 ational independence from the integration, manage13 ment, and operations of the software inventory and 

14 software entitlements of the agency. 

15 (c) SUBMISSION.—On the date on which the Chief In16 formation Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Acquisi17 tion Officer, the Chief Data Officer, and General Counsel 

18 of an agency, or the equivalent officials of the agency, 

19 complete the comprehensive assessment, the Chief Infor20 mation Officer shall submit the comprehensive assessment 

21 to the head of the agency. 

22 (d) SUBSEQUENT SUBMISSION.—Not later than 30 

23 days after the date on which the head of an agency re24 ceives the comprehensive assessment under subsection (c), 
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1 the head of the agency shall submit the comprehensive as2 sessment to— 

3 (1) the Director; 

4 (2) the Administrator; 

5 (3) the Comptroller General of the United 

6 States; 

7 (4) the Committee on Homeland Security and 

8 Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 

9 (5) the Committee on Oversight and Account10 ability of the House of Representatives. 

11 (e) CONSULTATION.—In order to ensure the utility 

12 and standardization of the comprehensive assessment of 

13 each agency, including to support the development of each 

14 plan and the report required under section 4(e)(2), the 

15 Director, in consultation with the Administrator, shall 

16 share information, best practices, and recommendations 

17 relating to the activities performed in the course of a com18 prehensive assessment of an agency. 

19 (f) INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.—For each element 

20 of the intelligence community, a comprehensive assess21 ment described under subsection (a) shall be— 

22 (1) conducted separately; 

23 (2) performed only by an entity designated by 

24 the head of the element of the intelligence commu25 nity, in accordance with appropriate applicable laws; 
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1 (3) performed in such a manner as to ensure 

2 appropriate protection of information which, if dis3 closed, may adversely affect national security; and 

4 (4) submitted in summary form, not later than 

5 30 days after the date on which the head of the ele6 ment of the intelligence community receives the as7 sessment, by the head of the element of the intel8 ligence community to— 

9 (A) the Director; 

10 (B) the Select Committee on Intelligence 

11 of the Senate; and 

12 (C) the Permanent Select Committee on 

13 Intelligence of the House of Representatives. 

14 SEC. 4. SOFTWARE MODERNIZATION PLANNING AT AGEN15 CIES. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Information Officer of 

17 each agency, in consultation with the Chief Financial Offi18 cer, the Chief Acquisition Officer, the Chief Data Officer, 

19 and the General Counsel of the agency, or the equivalent 

20 officials of the agency, shall use the information developed 

21 pursuant to the comprehensive assessment of the agency 

22 to develop a plan for the agency— 

23 (1) to consolidate software entitlements of the 

24 agency; 
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1 (2) to ensure that, in order to improve the per2 formance of, and reduce unnecessary costs to, the 

3 agency, the Chief Information Officer, Chief Data 

4 Officer, and Chief Acquisition Officer of the agency, 

5 or the equivalent officers, develop criteria and proce6 dures for how the agency will adopt cost-effective ac7 quisition strategies, including enterprise licensing, 

8 across the agency that reduce costs, eliminate excess 

9 licenses, and improve performance; and 

10 (3) to restrict the ability of a bureau, program, 

11 component, or operational entity within the agency 

12 to acquire, use, develop, or otherwise leverage any 

13 software entitlement (or portion thereof) without the 

14 approval of the Chief Information Officer of the 

15 agency, in consultation with the Chief Acquisition 

16 Officer of the agency, or the equivalent officers of 

17 the agency. 

18 (b) PLAN REQUIREMENTS.—The plan of an agency 

19 shall— 

20 (1) include a detailed strategy for— 

21 (A) the remediation of any software asset 

22 management deficiencies found during the com23 prehensive assessment of the agency; 
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1 (B) the ongoing maintenance of software 

2 asset management upon the completion of the 

3 remediation; 

4 (C) automation of software license man5 agement processes and incorporation of dis6 covery tools across the agency; 

7 (D) ensuring that officers and employees 

8 of the agency are adequately trained in the poli9 cies, procedures, rules, regulations, and guid10 ance relating to the software acquisition and 

11 development of the agency before entering into 

12 any agreement relating to any software entitle13 ment (or portion thereof) for the agency, in14 cluding training on— 

15 (i) negotiating options within con16 tracts to address and minimize provisions 

17 that restrict how the agency may deploy, 

18 access, or use the software, including re19 strictions on deployment, access, or use on 

20 desktop or server hardware and restric21 tions on data ownership or access; 

22 (ii) the differences between acquiring 

23 commercial software products and services 

24 and acquiring or building custom software; 

25 and 
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1 (iii) determining the costs of different 

2 types of licenses and options for adjusting 

3 licenses to meet increasing or decreasing 

4 demand; and 

5 (E) maximizing the effectiveness of soft6 ware deployed by the agency, including, to the 

7 extent practicable, leveraging technologies 

8 that— 

9 (i) measure actual software usage via 

10 analytics that can identify inefficiencies to 

11 assist in rationalizing software spending; 

12 (ii) allow for segmentation of the user 

13 base; 

14 (iii) support effective governance and 

15 compliance in the use of software; and 

16 (iv) support interoperable capabilities 

17 between software; 

18 (2) identify categories of software the agency 

19 could prioritize for conversion to more cost-effective 

20 software licenses, including enterprise licenses, as 

21 the software entitlements, contracts, and other 

22 agreements or arrangements come up for renewal or 

23 renegotiation; 

24 (3) provide an estimate of the costs to move to25 ward more enterprise, open-source, or other licenses 
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1 that do not restrict the use of software by the agen2 cy, and the projected cost savings, efficiency meas3 ures, and improvements to agency performance 

4 throughout the total software lifecycle; 

5 (4) identify potential mitigations to minimize 

6 software license restrictions on how such software 

7 can be deployed, accessed, or used, including any 

8 mitigations that would minimize any such restric9 tions on desktop or server hardware, through a cloud 

10 service provider, or on data ownership or access; 

11 (5) ensure that the purchase by the agency of 

12 any software is based on publicly available criteria 

13 that are not unduly structured to favor any specific 

14 vendor, unless prohibited by law (including regula15 tion); 

16 (6) include any estimates for additional re17 sources, services, or support the agency may need to 

18 implement the plan; 

19 (7) provide information on the prevalence of 

20 software products in use across multiple software 

21 categories; and 

22 (8) include any additional information, data, or 

23 analysis determined necessary by the Chief Informa24 tion Officer, or other equivalent official, of the agen25 cy. 
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1 (c) SUPPORT.—The Chief Information Officer, or 

2 other equivalent official, of an agency may request support 

3 from the Director and the Administrator for any analysis 

4 or developmental needs to create the plan of the agency. 

5 (d) AGENCY SUBMISSION.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

7 the date on which the head of an agency submits the 

8 comprehensive assessment pursuant to section 3(d), 

9 the head of the agency shall submit to the Director, 

10 the Committee on Homeland Security and Govern11 mental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on 

12 Oversight and Accountability of the House of Rep13 resentatives the plan of the agency. 

14 (2) INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.—Not later 

15 than 1 year after the date on which the head of an 

16 element of the intelligence community submits the 

17 summary assessment pursuant to section 3(f)(4), the 

18 head of the element shall separately submit the plan 

19 of the element to the Director, the Select Committee 

20 on Intelligence of the Senate, and the Permanent 

21 Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 

22 Representatives. 

23 (e) CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION.—The Di24 rector— 
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1 (1) in coordination with the Administrator, the 

2 Chief Information Officers Council, the Chief Acqui3 sition Officers Council, the Chief Data Officers 

4 Council, the Chief Financial Officers Council, and 

5 other government and industry representatives iden6 tified by the Director, shall establish processes, 

7 using existing reporting functions, as appropriate, to 

8 identify, define, and harmonize common definitions, 

9 terms and conditions, standardized requirements, 

10 and other information and criteria to support agency 

11 heads in developing and implementing the plans re12 quired by this section; and 

13 (2) in coordination with the Administrator, and 

14 not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 

15 of this Act, submit to the Committee on Homeland 

16 Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate 

17 and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

18 of the House of Representatives a report detailing 

19 recommendations to leverage Government procure20 ment policies and practices with respect to software 

21 acquired by, developed by, deployed within, or in use 

22 at 1 or more agencies to— 

23 (A) increase the interoperability of soft24 ware licenses, including software entitlements 

25 and software built by Government agencies; 
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1 (B) consolidate licenses, as appropriate; 

2 (C) reduce costs; 

3 (D) improve performance; and 

4 (E) modernize the management and over5 sight of software entitlements and software 

6 built by Government agencies, as identified 

7 through an analysis of agency plans. 

8 SEC. 5. GAO REPORT. 

9 Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 

10 of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 

11 shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

12 Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee 

13 on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Rep14 resentatives a report on— 

15 (1) Government-wide trends in agency software 

16 asset management practices; 

17 (2) comparisons of software asset management 

18 practices among agencies; 

19 (3) the establishment by the Director of proc20 esses to identify, define, and harmonize common 

21 definitions, terms, and conditions under section 4(e); 

22 (4) agency compliance with the restrictions on 

23 contract support under section 3(b); and 
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1 (5) other analyses of and findings regarding the 

2 plans of agencies, as determined by the Comptroller 

3 General of the United States. 

4 SEC. 6. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS. 

5 No additional funds are authorized to be appro6 priated for the purpose of carrying out this Act. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 4, 

2024. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 
118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 1695 

AN ACT 

To improve the visibility, accountability, and overtices, and for other purposes. sight of agency software asset management prac-