I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1695 
To improve the visibility, accountability, and oversight of agency software 
asset management practices, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 22, 2023 
Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CASE, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. 
FALLON, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. MACE, Mr. MEUSER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. 
PORTER, and Ms. TOKUDA) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
A BILL 
To improve the visibility, accountability, and oversight of 
agency software asset management practices, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Agency 
Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of General Serv-
ices. 
(2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 
meaning given that term in section 3502 of title 44, 
United States Code. 
(3) CLOUD
COMPUTING.—The term ‘‘cloud 
computing’’ has the meaning given the term in Spe-
cial Publication 800–145 of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, or any successor docu-
ment. 
(4) CLOUD
SERVICE
PROVIDER.—The term 
‘‘cloud service provider’’ means an entity offering 
cloud computing products or services to agencies. 
(5) COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT.—The term 
‘‘comprehensive assessment’’ means a comprehensive 
assessment conducted pursuant to section 3(a). 
(6) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budg-
et. 
(7) PLAN.—The term ‘‘plan’’ means the plan 
developed by a Chief Information Officer, or equiva-
lent official, pursuant to section 4(a). 
(8) 
SOFTWARE
ENTITLEMENT.—The 
term 
‘‘software entitlement’’ means any software that— 
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(A) has been purchased, leased, or licensed 
by or billed to an agency under any contract or 
other business arrangement; and 
(B) is subject to use limitations. 
(9) SOFTWARE INVENTORY.—The term ‘‘soft-
ware inventory’’ means the software inventory of an 
agency required pursuant to— 
(A) section 2(b)(2)(A) of the Making Elec-
tronic Government Accountable By Yielding 
Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2016 (40 U.S.C. 
11302 note; Public Law 114–210); or 
(B) subsequent guidance issued by the Di-
rector pursuant to that Act. 
SEC. 3. SOFTWARE ENTITLEMENT AND INVENTORY INTEG-
RITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—As soon as practicable, and not 
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Chief Information Officer of each agency, in consulta-
tion with the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Procure-
ment Officer, and General Counsel of the agency, or the 
equivalent officials of the agency, shall complete a com-
prehensive assessment of the software entitlements and 
software inventories of the agency, which shall include— 
(1) the current software inventory of the agen-
cy, including software entitlements, contracts and 
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other agreements or arrangements of the agency, 
and a list of the largest software entitlements of the 
agency separated by vendor and category of soft-
ware; 
(2) a comprehensive, detailed accounting of— 
(A) any software deployed for the agency 
as of the date of the comprehensive assessment, 
including, to the extent identifiable, the con-
tracts and other agreements or arrangements 
that the agency uses to acquire, deploy, or use 
such software; 
(B) information and data on software enti-
tlements, which shall include information on 
any additional fees or costs for the use of cloud 
services that is not included in the initial costs 
of the contract, agreement, or arrangement— 
(i) for which the agency pays; 
(ii) that are not deployed or in use by 
the agency; and 
(iii) that are billed to the agency 
under any contract or business arrange-
ment that creates redundancy in the de-
ployment or use by the agency; and 
(C) the extent— 
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(i) to which any software paid for, in 
use, or deployed throughout the agency is 
interoperable; and 
(ii) of the efforts of the agency to im-
prove interoperability of software assets 
throughout the agency enterprise; 
(3) a categorization of software licenses of the 
agency by cost, volume, and type of software; 
(4) a list of any provisions in the software li-
censes of the agency that may restrict how the soft-
ware can be deployed, accessed, or used, including 
any such restrictions on desktop or server hardware 
or through a cloud service provider; and 
(5) an analysis addressing— 
(A) the accuracy and completeness of the 
software inventory and software entitlements of 
the agency before and after the comprehensive 
assessment; 
(B) management by the agency of and 
compliance by the agency with all contracts or 
other agreements or arrangements that include 
or implicate software licensing or software man-
agement within the agency; 
(C) the extent to which the agency accu-
rately captures the total cost of enterprise li-
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censes agreements and related costs, including 
the total cost of upgrades over the life of a con-
tract, cloud usage cost per user, and any other 
cost associated with the maintenance or serv-
icing of contracts; and 
(D) compliance with software license man-
agement policies of the agency. 
(b) CONTRACT SUPPORT.— 
(1) AUTHORITY.—The head of an agency may 
enter into 1 or more contracts to support the re-
quirements of subsection (a). 
(2) NO
CONFLICT
OF
INTEREST.—Contracts 
under paragraph (1) shall not include contractors 
with organization conflicts of interest. 
(3) OPERATIONAL INDEPENDENCE.—Over the 
course of a comprehensive assessment, contractors 
hired pursuant to paragraph (1) shall maintain oper-
ational independence from the integration, manage-
ment, and operations of the software inventory and 
software entitlements of the agency. 
(c) SUBMISSION.—On the date on which the Chief In-
formation Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procure-
ment Officer, and General Counsel of an agency, or the 
equivalent officials of the agency, complete the comprehen-
sive assessment, and not later than 1 year after the date 
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of enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Officer 
shall submit the comprehensive assessment to— 
(1) the head of the agency; 
(2) the Director; 
(3) the Administrator; 
(4) the Comptroller General of the United 
States; 
(5) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 
(6) the Committee on Oversight and Account-
ability of the House of Representatives. 
(d) CONSULTATION.—In order to ensure the utility 
and standardization of the comprehensive assessment of 
each agency, including to support the development of each 
plan and the Government-wide strategy described in sec-
tion 5, the Director, in consultation with the Adminis-
trator, may share information, best practices, and rec-
ommendations relating to the activities performed in the 
course of a comprehensive assessment of an agency. 
SEC. 4. ENTERPRISE LICENSING POSITIONING AT AGEN-
CIES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Information Officer of 
each agency, in consultation with the Chief Financial Offi-
cer and the Chief Procurement Officer of the agency, or 
the equivalent officials of the agency, shall use the infor-
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mation developed pursuant to the comprehensive assess-
ment of the agency to develop a plan for the agency— 
(1) to consolidate software licenses of the agen-
cy; and 
(2) to the greatest extent practicable, in order 
to improve the performance of, and reduce unneces-
sary costs to, the agency, to adopt enterprise license 
agreements across the agency, by type or category of 
software. 
(b) PLAN REQUIREMENTS.—The plan of an agency 
shall— 
(1) include a detailed strategy for— 
(A) the remediation of any software asset 
management deficiencies found during the com-
prehensive assessment of the agency; 
(B) the ongoing maintenance of software 
asset management upon the completion of the 
remediation; and 
(C) maximizing the effectiveness of soft-
ware deployed by the agency, including, to the 
extent 
practicable, 
leveraging 
technologies 
that— 
(i) provide in-depth analysis of user 
behaviors and collect user feedback; 
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(ii) measure actual software usage via 
analytics that can identify inefficiencies to 
assist in rationalizing software spending; 
(iii) allow for segmentation of the user 
base; 
(iv) support effective governance and 
compliance in the use of software; and 
(v) support interoperable capabilities 
between software; 
(2) identify not fewer than 5 categories of soft-
ware the agency will prioritize for conversion to en-
terprise licenses as the software entitlements, con-
tracts, and other agreements or arrangements for 
those categories come up for renewal or renegoti-
ation; 
(3) provide an estimate of the costs to move to 
enterprise, open-source, or other licenses that do not 
restrict the use of software by the agency, and the 
projected cost savings, efficiency measures, and im-
provements to agency performance throughout the 
total software lifecycle; 
(4) identify potential mitigations to minimize 
software license restrictions on how such software 
can be deployed, accessed, or used, including any 
mitigations that would minimize any such restric-
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tions on desktop or server hardware or through a 
cloud service provider; 
(5) ensure that the purchase by the agency of 
any enterprise license or other software is based on 
publicly available criteria that are not unduly struc-
tured to favor any specific vendor; 
(6) include any estimates for additional re-
sources, services, or support the agency may need to 
execute the enterprise licensing position plan; 
(7) provide information on the prevalence of 
software products in use across multiple software 
categories; and 
(8) include any additional information, data, or 
analysis determined necessary by the Chief Informa-
tion Officer, or other equivalent official, of the agen-
cy. 
(c) CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION.—The Di-
rector, in coordination with the Chief Information Officers 
Council, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, the Ad-
ministrator, and other government and industry represent-
atives identified by the Director, may establish processes 
to identify, define, and harmonize common definitions, 
terms and conditions, and other information and criteria 
to support agency heads in developing and implementing 
the plans required by this section. 
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(d) SUPPORT.—The Chief Information Officer, or 
other equivalent official, of an agency may request support 
from the Director and the Administrator for any analysis 
or developmental needs to create the plan of the agency. 
(e) SUBMISSION.—Not later than 120 days after the 
date on which the Chief Information Officer, or other 
equivalent official, of an agency submits the comprehen-
sive assessment pursuant to section 3(c), the head of the 
agency shall submit to the Director, the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen-
ate, and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
of the House of Representatives the plan of the agency. 
SEC. 5. GOVERNMENT-WIDE STRATEGY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Director, in consultation 
with the Administrator and the Federal Chief Information 
Officers Council, shall submit to the Committee on Home-
land Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and 
the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the 
House of Representatives a strategy that includes— 
(1) proposals to support the adoption of Gov-
ernment-wide enterprise licenses for software entitle-
ments identified through the comprehensive assess-
ments and plans, including, where appropriate, a 
cost-benefit analysis; 
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(2) opportunities to leverage Government pro-
curement policies and practices to increase inter-
operability of software entitlements acquired and de-
ployed to reduce costs and improve performance; 
(3) the incorporation of data on spending by 
agencies on, the performance of, and management 
by agencies of software entitlements as part of the 
information required under section 11302(c)(3)(B) 
of title 40, United States Code; 
(4) where applicable, directions to agencies to 
examine 
options 
and 
relevant 
criteria 
for 
transitioning to open-source software; and 
(5) any other information or data collected or 
analyzed by the Director. 
(b) BUDGET SUBMISSION.— 
(1) FIRST BUDGET.—With respect to the first 
budget of the President submitted under section 
1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, on or after 
the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Director shall ensure that the strat-
egy required under subsection (a) of this section and 
the plan of each agency are included in the budget 
justification materials of each agency submitted in 
conjunction with that budget. 
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(2) SUBSEQUENT 5 BUDGETS.—With respect to 
the first 5 budgets of the President submitted under 
section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, 
after the budget described in paragraph (1), the Di-
rector shall— 
(A) designate performance metrics for 
agencies for common software licensing, man-
agement, and cost criteria; and 
(B) ensure that the progress of each agen-
cy toward the performance metrics is included 
in the budget justification materials of the 
agency submitted in conjunction with that 
budget. 
SEC. 6. GAO REPORT. 
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 
shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee 
on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Rep-
resentatives a report on Government-wide trends, com-
parisons among agencies, and other analyses of plans and 
the strategy required under section 5(a) by the Comp-
troller General of the United States. 
Æ 
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