PITAC gets two more years

President's Information Technology Advisory Committee

The White House issued an executive order last week that extends the life of the private-sector President's Information Technology Advisory Committee for another two years.

PITAC, formed in 1997 by President Clinton, is a group of 30 industry and academic IT experts. The group was to be disbanded Feb. 11, but President Bush signed an executive order to allow it to continue until June 1 in order to have more time to determine how the committee would fit into the new administration.

The new executive order, signed May 31, extends the committee's life to June 1, 2003.

The committee advised Clinton on many IT matters, including open-source software and centralized management within the federal government.

In February, PITAC released reports to Bush on digital libraries and how to use IT to transform the health care and education sectors.