CIO Council prepares for transition
After releasing its strategic plan, the federal CIO Council is gearing up to present ideas to the incoming presidential administration on the benefits of and barriers to information technology in government.
After releasing its strategic plan, the federal CIO Council is gearing up
to present ideas to the incoming presidential administration on the benefits
of and barriers to information technology in government.
The council's strategic plan focuses on goals the group would like government
to achieve, such as joint roles for security and privacy and further development
of IT workforce issues.
Although the transition documents will incorporate these ideas, they
will deal more with the constraints that keep agencies from moving forward
with technology initiatives.
The review includes looking at which laws help or hamper the use of
new technology, said Jim Flyzik, vice chairman of the council and CIO at
the Treas-ury Department. It will also look at problems that may arise with
funding cross-government initiatives via a central IT innovation fund, he
said.
The Clinger-Cohen Act includes a provision for interagency funding of
proj-ects, but the provision has not been used by Congress or the Office
of Management and Budget, said Paul Brubaker, deputy CIO for the Defense
Department and co-chairman of the CIO Council's outreach committee. "My
hope is that we dust that off and use it," he said.
The council also plans to weigh in on the federal CIO debate, adding
its voice on whether a single person or office should be in charge of federal
IT policy. "We're not going to take a political position," Flyzik said.
"We're going to lay out the pros and cons and how the IT community sees
those issues."
A big part of developing the transition documents will be involving
all agencies and industry leaders to create true "IT community" documents,
he said.
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