The federal government invests more than $80 billion annually in IT, but many of these investments fail to meet cost and schedule expectations or make significant contributions to mission-related outcomes. We have previously testified that the federal government has spent billions of dollars on failed IT investments, such as the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Expeditionary Combat Support System, which was canceled in December 2012, after spending more than a billion dollars and failing to deploy within 5 years of initially obligating funds; the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative Network program, which was ended in January 2011, after the department obligated more than $1 billion to the program, because it did not meet cost-effectiveness and viability standards; the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise program, which was intended to be delivered by 2014 at a total estimated cost of $609 million, but was terminated in October 2011 due to challenges in managing the program; the Farm Service Agency’s Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems program, which was to replace aging hardware and software applications that process benefits to farmers, was halted after investing about 10 years and at least $423 million, while only delivering about 20 percent of the functionality that was originally planned. the Office of Personnel Management’s Retirement Systems Modernization program, which was canceled in February 2011, after spending approximately $231 million on the agency’s third attempt to automate the processing of federal employee retirement claims; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, DOD, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s National Polar- orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, which was a tri- agency weather satellite program that the White House Office of Science and Technology stopped in February 2010 after the program spent 16 years and almost $5 billion; and the VA Scheduling Replacement Project, which was terminated in September 2009 after spending an estimated $127 million over 9 years. These and other failed IT projects often suffered from a lack of disciplined and effective management, such as project planning, requirements definition, and program oversight and governance. In many instances, agencies had not consistently applied best practices that are critical to successfully acquiring IT investments. Federal IT projects have also failed due to a lack of oversight and governance. Executive-level governance and oversight across the government has often been ineffective, specifically from chief information officers (CIO). For example, we have reported that not all CIOs had the authority to review and approve the entire agency IT portfolio and that CIOs’ authority was limited. Recognizing the severity of issues related to government-wide management of IT, in December 2014, Congress enacted IT reform legislation, FITARA. The law holds promise for improving agencies’ acquisition of IT and enabling Congress to monitor agencies’ progress and hold them accountable for reducing duplication and achieving cost savings. FITARA includes specific requirements related to seven areas. Agency CIO authority enhancements. Agency CIOs are required to (1) approve the IT budget requests of their respective agencies, (2) certify that IT investments are adequately implementing the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) incremental development guidance, (3) review and approve contracts for IT, and (4) approve the appointment of other agency employees with the title of CIO. Enhanced transparency and improved risk management. OMB and agencies are to make publicly available detailed information on federal IT investments, and agency CIOs are to categorize their IT investments by risk. Additionally, in the case of major IT investments rated as high risk for 4 consecutive quarters, the law requires that the agency CIO and the investment’s program manager conduct a review aimed at identifying and addressing the causes of the risk. Portfolio review. Agencies are to annually review IT investment portfolios in order to, among other things, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and identify potential waste and duplication. In developing the associated process, the law requires OMB to develop standardized performance metrics, to include cost savings, and to submit quarterly reports to Congress on cost savings. Federal data center consolidation initiative (FDCCI). Agencies are required to provide OMB with a data center inventory, a strategy for consolidating and optimizing the data centers (to include planned cost savings), and quarterly updates on progress made. The law also requires OMB to develop a goal of how much is to be saved through this initiative, and provide annual reports on cost savings achieved. Expansion of training and use of IT cadres. Agencies are to update their acquisition human capital plans to address supporting the timely and effective acquisition of IT. In doing so, the law calls for agencies to consider, among other things, establishing IT acquisition cadres or developing agreements with other agencies that have such cadres. Maximizing the benefit of the federal strategic sourcing initiative. Federal agencies are required to compare their purchases of services and supplies to what is offered under the Federal Strategic Sourcing initiative. OMB is also required to issue related regulations. Government-wide software purchasing program. The General Services Administration is to develop a strategic sourcing initiative to enhance government-wide acquisition and management of software. In doing so, the law requires that, to the maximum extent practicable, the General Services Administration should allow for the purchase of a software license agreement that is available for use by all Executive Branch agencies as a single user. In addition, in June 2015, OMB released guidance describing how agencies are to implement the law. OMB’s guidance states that it is intended to, among other things: assist agencies in aligning their IT resources to statutory requirements; establish government-wide IT management controls that will meet the law’s requirements, while providing agencies with flexibility to adapt to unique agency processes and requirements; clarify the CIO’s role and strengthen the relationship between agency CIOs and bureau CIOs; and strengthen CIO accountability for IT cost, schedule, performance, and security. In this regard, the guidance reiterates OMB’s existing guidance on PortfolioStat, the IT Dashboard, and the federal data center consolidation initiative, and expands its existing guidance on TechStat sessions. The guidance includes several actions agencies are to take to establish a basic set of roles and responsibilities (referred to as the “common baseline”) for CIOs and other senior agency officials that are needed to implement the authorities described in the law. For example, agencies were required to conduct a self-assessment and submit a plan describing the changes they will make to ensure that common baseline responsibilities are implemented. Agencies were to submit their plans to OMB’s Office of E-Government and Information Technology by August 15, 2015, and make portions of the plans publicly available on agency websites no later than 30 days after OMB approval. As of October 30, 2015, none of the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies had made their plans publicly available. The guidance also noted that OMB will help support agency implementation of the common baseline by, for example, requiring the Federal CIO Council to, on quarterly basis, discuss topics related to the implementation of the common baseline and to assist agencies by sharing examples of agency governance processes and IT policies. Further, by June 30, 2015, the President’s Management Council was to select three members from the council to provide an update on government-wide implementation of FITARA on a quarterly basis through September 2016. However, as of October 28, 2015, OMB officials stated that the President’s Management Council had not yet selected members to provide these updates. In addition, OMB recently issued a memorandum regarding commodity IT acquisitions and noted that agencies buy and manage their IT in a fragmented and inefficient manner which conflicts with the goals of FITARA. Among other things, the memorandum directed agencies to standardize laptop and desktop configurations for common requirements and reduce the number of contracts for laptops and desktops by consolidating purchasing. The memorandum notes that OMB intends for agencies to implement standard configurations over time by using approved contracts, with a government-wide goal of 75 percent of agencies using approved contracts by fiscal year 2018. The memorandum requires agencies to develop transition plans to achieve this goal and submit them to OMB by February 28, 2016. Our government-wide high-risk area Improving the Management of IT Acquisitions and Operations highlights critical IT initiatives, four of which align with provisions in FITARA: (1) an emphasis on incremental development, (2) a key transparency initiative, (3) efforts to consolidate data centers, and (4) efforts to streamline agencies’ portfolios of IT investments. Our high-risk report notes that implementation of these initiatives had been inconsistent, and more work remained to demonstrate progress in achieving IT acquisition outcomes. Implementing the provisions from the law, along with our outstanding recommendations, will be necessary for agencies to demonstrate progress in addressing this high-risk area. OMB has emphasized the need to deliver investments in smaller parts, or increments, in order to reduce investment risk, deliver capabilities more quickly, and facilitate the adoption of emerging technologies. In 2010, it called for agencies’ major investments to deliver functionality every 12 months and, since 2012, every 6 months. However, we recently reported that less than half of selected investments at five major agencies planned to deliver capabilities in 12-month cycles. Accordingly, we recommended that OMB develop and issue clearer guidance on incremental development and that selected agencies update and implement their associated policies. Most agencies agreed with our recommendations or had no comment. In January 2010, the Federal CIO began leading TechStat sessions— face-to-face meetings to terminate or turn around IT investments that are failing or are not producing results. These meetings involve OMB and agency leadership and are intended to increase accountability and improve performance. OMB reported that federal agencies achieved over $3 billion in cost savings or avoidances as a result of these sessions in 2010. Subsequently, OMB empowered agency CIOs to hold their own TechStat sessions within their respective agencies.