Putnam, Davis seek changes to Clinger-Cohen

Reps. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.) last week added proposed language to four sections of the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, which governs how agencies make their IT investments.Their bill, HR 4570, would make cybersecurity a requirement in systems planning and acquisition and would give the Office of Management and Budget greater authority over IT security at agencies.“Clinger-Cohen was written before the federal government had a large Web presence,” said Putnam, who chairs the Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census. “It is essential that Clinger-Cohen be modernized to keep pace with these changing threats.”Davis, chairman of the Government Reform Committee, said that as agencies increasingly use e-government technologies, multiplying the interconnectivity with private-sector systems, departments are exposed to benign as well as malicious disruptions.“This legislation helps ensure that every federal information system is managed in a way that minimizes the security risks,” Davis said.