ELC attendees split on FITARA

As the 2013 Executive Leadership Conference wrapped up with an industry-government working group session, one question put to the participants was on the expected impact of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act.  

The legislation, which the House passed as part of the defense authorization bill in June, would establish a single, presidentially appointed CIO for each agency, and consolidate IT budget authority in that office. Given the choice of four different likely outcomes, roughly 250 members of the federal IT community voted two answers into a dead heat at the top.

In a real-time, unscientific survey of participants, 38 percent predicted FITARA would help by "enforcing standardization and ensuring oversight of commodity IT." An identical percentage, however, worried that the result would be "adding a level of complexity that makes it difficult for agency components to do their job." 

(Improving on the Clinger-Cohen Act's technology investment provisions and creating clear technology frameworks ran a distant third and fourth.)

A divided house? Or a comment on the tradeoffs inherent in any big policy shift? That question, alas was left for next year's ELC.

Note: This article was corrected on Oct. 30.  FITARA, as passed by the House, calls for agency CIOs to be presidential appointments, but not Senate-confirmed positions as this piece originally stated.