Contracting, cloud essential to modernizing House IT

To update IT systems on Capitol Hill, federal legislators should turn to cloud-based email, common infrastructure and innovative contracting, state CIOs told members of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

State governments take advantage of a variety of applications, such as interactive bill document management, remote voting and remote testimony for legislative witnesses, the CIOs said. The states also deploy interactive capabilities on their government campuses, such as online public commenting on legislation, real-time bill tracking, and robust public Wi-Fi and wireless networks.

The CIOs testified at a July 24 hearing on how state IT modernization efforts could present ideas for improving Capitol Hill's internal and public-facing IT systems, some of which are decades old.

Some committee members said the movement of legislation through Congress relies on the ability of aging technology to keep up with modern applications. Other members pointed out that wireless coverage remains spotty on Capitol Hill.

"Members coming here from state legislatures are shocked at the lack of support" for IT capabilities, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said.

Committee Chairman Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) invoked a common complaint. "Congress is an 18^th-century institution using 20^th-century technology to solve 21^st-century problems," he said.

One of the witnesses at the hearing, Virginia's CIO Nelson Moe, served as CIO of the U.S. House until he moved to the state position in 2015. He told the panel that as House CIO, his focus was more tactical than strategic as he sought to address lawmakers’ immediate needs on a daily basis. "It was knife-fight innovation," he said.

As Virginia's CIO, Moe said he supports IT innovation through contracting. The commonwealth has a central systems integrator and seven best-of-breed suppliers for cloud email, mainframe operations, servers, storage, networks and printing for 63 state agencies.

That approach makes assembling effective, quick IT solutions for state agencies "like using Legos," with new capabilities set up to interlock with existing ones, he added. It "is a key factor to innovate at the speed and scale" needed and could be a good strategy for the House’s IT modernization efforts.

Moe advised committee members to "consider consolidation of commodity IT infrastructure and focus on enhancing the ability to provide high-value, differentiating IT services for members."

Mike Rohrbach, CIO and IT director for Washington state's legislature, said cloud computing is a key ingredient for forward-looking capabilities and applications. The technology frees up back-office systems, simplifies the devices lawmakers use and streamlines citizens’ access to publicly available data.

To facilitate lawmakers’ activities and interactions with citizens, Washington's legislature uses a portfolio of technologies, including cloud-based email, electronic bill tracking and voting, and strong Wi-Fi coverage across the capitol campus, he said. The state also invested in a distributed antenna system for its campus in Olympia two years ago in anticipation of coming 5G service.

Kilmer said retaining highly skilled IT workers has been a challenge for the federal government and asked the state CIOs: "How do you recruit people?"

"We're 50 miles from Seattle," Rohrbach said. "We're not going to steal people from Amazon or Google." Instead of targeting higher-end, "hard-skilled" technologists, his team "recruits on aptitude and attitude. Occasionally, we'll get lucky," but his goal is to find people who will focus on customers’ and the state's needs rather than the technology.

Moe said Virginia's contracting approach shifts "the cost burden of high-tech staffing to suppliers and vendors," and his office often attracts employees who are seeking a solid, reliable place to work.