House passes TMF reauthorization bill

The House of Representatives passed a proposal to extend and amend the foundational legislation for the Technology Modernization Fund on Tuesday. 

The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act, backed by Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., would reauthorize the tech-focused revolving fund through fiscal 2030.

The proposal would also make some changes to the program, including around reimbursement requirements for agencies that use TMF funding.

“The TMF was established because it can be difficult to plan and budget for federal legacy IT upgrades through the annual appropriations cycle,” said Mace on the House floor on Tuesday. “The TMF addresses this problem by acting as a self-sustaining funding mechanism.”

Mace continued: “The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act enhances the Technology Modernization Fund by ensuring that it’s a sustainable financing tool for fixing costly and risky legacy IT systems. The TMF has strayed from the original congressional intent… It does not consistently require agencies to repay their awards.”

The bill would require agencies to reimburse administrative costs and reimburse TMF at a level needed to keep the fund operational through its sunset.

After getting $1 billion via the American Rescue Plan Act, those running TMF — which has a program management office in the General Services Administration and a board that evaluates proposals — relaxed repayment guidelines for critical projects, including a “minimal repayment” option in addition to a partial repayment of as low as 25%. 

Currently, the TMF requires full repayment or partial repayment of 50% or 75%. 

The TMF website acknowledges that “requiring full repayment to the TMF has been a barrier to the submission of a diverse set of project proposals” and encourages agencies to submit proposals for projects that “would produce significant positive impact or would address critical security or capability gaps,” even if they don’t expect a financial return that would enable full repayment. 

The bill would also revise the criteria project proposals are evaluated against to include the impact of modernizing legacy IT systems, the ability of an agency to repay funds and the extent to which a proposal addresses the greatest security, privacy and operational risks.

The federal CIO would also be required to annually report to Congress on the top 10 legacy IT systems and lists from agencies of their high-risk legacy IT systems. 

The proposal also includes an apparent reaction to events surrounding Login.gov in recent years, a single-sign on system at GSA that came under fire last year for misleading other agencies about the system’s compliance with identity proofing standards. 

Those inaccuracies were also included in the agency’s proposal for TMF money, according to the inspector general report that detailed the events. Login.gov got $187 in TMF funding in 2021. 

The recently passed bill includes a note that the TMF administrator suspend or terminate funding for projects where the head of an agency gave “fraudulent or misleading statements about such project… in the application or proposal.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also spoke in support of the bill on Tuesday, saying that “the TMF provides a self-sustaining funding model that has become an essential tool.”

“TMF funding is helping to digitize veterans records, ensuring that more than 1 million people and their family members who reach out to the National Archives and Records Administration every year get timely access to the documents they need to verify their qualification for important, life saving benefits,” he said. 

The bill currently does not have a Senate counterpart. The original Modernizing Government Technology Act passed as part of the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act..

New TMF funding

The fund made a series of new investments last week, including $5.9 million to the Education Department for its student aid website and $12 million to the Commerce Department for weather.gov. 

The State Department got $13.1 million for zero trust work and another $18.2 million to use generative AI to improve how its staff access information across thousands of diplomatic cables daily, in addition to other daily information. 

“TMF investments aren’t just about upgrading systems; they’re about transforming the very fabric of how services are delivered,” Larry Bafundo, acting TMF executive director, said in a statement about the investments.