Horn retains IT oversight

Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) will maintain oversight of many government information management issues, including information security, as chairman of a new subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee.

Committee chairman Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) on Feb. 1 created the Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee and named Horn chairman.

Earlier this year, Horn stepped down as chairman of the Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee because of a GOP mandate limiting such jobs to six years.

The new subcommittee will oversee federal agencies' financial accountability, agencies' efficiency and the government's effectiveness as a whole in working with state and local agencies. Horn has held many hearings on these issues and such legislation as the Government Performance and Results Act.

The panel also will handle information management, including information security. Horn championed that issue in the House, examining agencies' security after years of attention to the Year 2000 problem. He issued his first set of grades to agencies in September, giving the government an overall D-minus grade.

Earlier, Burton named Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) as chairman of the new Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee, which will oversee all other government IT issues and procurement policy, practices and reforms. That panel and the Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee were formed by splitting the Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee.