Senate panel advances House-led TMF update
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Congress is looking to enshrine repayment requirements in the legislation that supports the Technology Modernization Fund.
A Senate committee passed a bill reauthorizing the central revolving fund administered by the General Services Administration to support IT modernization.
The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act passed the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on a vote of 10-1.
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in May, extends the Technology Modernization Fund through 2031. If the reauthorizing legislation is not passed, the fund will
sunset in December 2025.
First established in 2018, the TMF is a mechanism for federal agencies to tap a pool of funds for modernization projects. Agencies submit applications to the TMF Board and winning proposals are funded via the central pot of money appropriated by Congress.
The original plan for the fund was to have agencies repay TMF awards through future savings, to keep the fund solvent. However, the Biden administration relaxed repayment requirements in the wake of a $1 billion plus-up to the TMF via the American Rescue Plan Act. The reauthorizing legislation requires that agency repayments of TMF awards be sufficient to keep the fund operational through 2031.
The bill also tasks agency chief information officers with developing lists of legacy IT systems, with special attention to those that pose security, privacy and operational risks to the federal government, and sharing these with Congress.