Tech officials huddle to implement new data laws
Agency tech officials meet with the Office of Management and Budget to decide how new data laws fit into their efforts under the President's Management Agenda.
As the President's Management Agenda turns a year old, federal agency IT leaders are considering how data legislation passed just after the partial federal shutdown will impact their modernization efforts under the PMA.
"We saw a flurry of legislation passed at the end of the last Congress that that are relevant to our community," said Margie Graves, federal deputy CIO at the Office of Management and Budget. In remarks at an FCW IT modernization event March 21, Graves said she planned a "listening session" at the General Services Administration on the new laws that afternoon.
The session, she said, will bring together agency CIOs, chief data officers and chief information security officers to go over the legislation and get feedback on challenges with implementing it.
She advised industry attendees at the morning FCW event to "keep their ear to the ground because there will be some information coming back from your [federal agency] customers after this listening session."
Using data as a strategic asset and squeezing value from it is a PMA pillar that agencies are just getting their heads around, Graves said.
Officials will consider the impact of the Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act, the Geospatial Data Act of 2018, the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act and a February executive order on artificial intelligence.
The Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act provides guidelines on how agencies should collect and analyze data to promote effective and efficient policymaking across programs and organizations. It also requires agencies to designate a chief data officer.
The Geospatial Data Act of 2018, signed into law last October, promotes the use of location information.
The IDEA Act is intended to make government websites more user friendly and improve their operations with digitized forms, electronic signatures and self-service capabilities. Under the law, agencies have until June to report back to Congress and OMB with plans on how they plan to implement electronic signatures and until December to report on priorities on websites and digital services that need modernization.
"We're going through our ideation of how we're going to implement those requirements," Graves told FCW. "They're recent requirements that came out of legislation that we have to determine how it works with transformation and modernization."