CIO czar concept gains momentum
Lawmakers last week announced support for a federal chief information officer to oversee how agencies create a digital government.
Lawmakers last week announced support for a federal chief information officer
to oversee how agencies create a digital government.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas) said Friday
the government needs a federal CIO to speed up the pace of electronic government.
They are expected to draft legislation that would create the position.
The lawmakers will base their broad digital government bills on the
recommendations laid out in a report released Friday by the Democratic Leadership
Council's Progressive Policy Institute.
The institute recommends that the federal CIO report directly to the
president, that new funds be made available for e-government projects and
that a $500 million annual digital government fund be created to fund cross-agency
e-government initiatives.
A law would speed up the development of digital government projects,
which so far have been created unevenly across government, Lieberman said.
Computer security in particular needs special attention, he added.
A federal CIO would be "critical" to improving government computer security,
Turner said. However, the role of the federal CIO "would have to be structured
carefully. I think [there are] agencies [that] may feel uncomfortable with
it. We [have to be] careful about how we structure the CIO with respect
to" the Office of Management and Budget.
A draft of the Information Technology Management Reform Act, which later
was combined with other laws to become the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, originally
included a provision for a federal CIO. But OMB opposed the position and
the proposal was dropped. The law also created the agency CIO position.
Roger Baker, the Commerce Department's CIO, late last year called for
the government to create a central CIO who could offer federal agencies
a common vision on electronic services and the development of information
systems so that agencies' IT projects stay focused on improving the business
of government.
Alan Balutis, deputy CIO at Commerce, said he thinks a federal CIO "is
an important enough policy issue that should be put on the docket for discussion
and debate."
A federal CIO could help coordinate specific IT programs and missions
across government, said Jim Flyzik, CIO at the Treasury Department and vice
chairman of the CIO Council. This is a role that the CIO Council is trying
to fill, but it would need the program and budget authority that a federal
CIO would have to be able to do it, he said.
"We do need some authority that can put in place the things we need
to do on a governmentwide basis," he said. "The need for someone, something,
some organization to have power is there."
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