GSA preps for new modernization fund

Although the General Services Administration can't yet get to work actually managing the fund that agencies will use to modernize IT systems, GSA is preparing as much as it can to ensure it is ready to roll when the money comes in.

Bill Zielinski, deputy assistant commissioner for GSA's Office of Technology Category in the Federal Acquisition Service, said his agency will "be ready from day one" to support the Technology Modernization Fund board, once funds are appropriated.

The administration is seeking $210 million to bankroll the TMF, which was authorized under the Modernizing Government Technology Act.

GSA is charged with supporting the seven-member Technology Modernization Fund Board that will evaluate agency IT modernization plans and authorize TMF funding, Zielinski said at a Feb. 22 conference hosted by ACT-IAC.

Under a draft planning memo obtained by FCW, the board will include the federal CIO, a senior GSA official, a member of the Department of Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate and four at-large members appointed by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. All project proposals are subject to the board's evaluation and approval.

The agency's $50 billion next-generation telecommunications vehicle, the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract, is harmonizing with the overall push to modernize federal IT, Zielinski said. (At a recent roundtable discussion hosted by FCW, several agency officials similarly said they were looking to leverage EIS for their modernization efforts.)

"The administration sees EIS as an essential" to IT modernization work, he said.