WASHINGTON — A key lawmaker on government information technology hopes a House-passed bill to modernize IT for federal agencies passes in the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, despite a packed agenda.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said Tuesday he expects the Senate to pass the Modernizing Government Technology Act after Congress returns from recess after the Nov. 8 election.

"That's a very concrete goal and I think it's achievable," said Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations.

The bill was introduced by Connolly and subcommittee chairman Will Hurd, R-Texas, and passed the House unanimously Sept 22. The bill would create a $3.1 billion modernization fund to let federal agencies replace their legacy systems, and it would allow agencies to reinvest savings they find through compliance with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, known as FITARA. 

Upon Congress's return, lawmakers will be occupied primarily with finding agreement on a bill to fund most of the federal government for 2017 when a stop-gap spending bill passed last month expires Dec. 9. The transition itself may also suck up a lot of lawmakers' attention.

"The lame duck's going to have limited goals, limited time," Connolly said.

It's unclear what the future is for lame duck passage of another key piece of cyber legislation—one which Connolly viewed skeptically. That is a House Homeland Security Committee-approved bill that would elevate the Department of Homeland Security's cyber directorate into a national cyber infrastructure protection agency.

"It's worth looking at, but I would need to be persuaded of the merits of creating yet another separate stand-alone agency," Connolly said. "That's how government tends to do business, but it isolates something we want to integrate."

Email: jgould@defensenews.comTwitter:

@ReporterJoe

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

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