Lawmakers still hope to finish an e-gov bill this year

House lawmakers are making a late push to give agencies more than $200 million in e-government funds and to establish some type of governmentwide IT manager. The Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy tomorrow will mark up the E-Government Act of 2002 by replacing it with a manager’s amendment—a revised version of the Senate-passed S 803.Melissa Wojciak, staff director for Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), the subcommittee’s chairman, said Davis added five provisions to the manager’s amendment to go along with several technical corrections. A full committee hearing on the bill is scheduled for Oct. 9.Davis inserted his Federal Information Security Management Act to replace the provision that would have permanently reauthorized the Government Information Security Reform Act. FISMA would require all agencies to implement specific, baseline security standards established by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and permanently reauthorize the agencywide risk management security approach first imposed this year under GISRA.The changes also would contain Title 5 of Davis’ Service Acquisition Reform Act of 2002, which would let state and local governments use the General Services Administration’s schedule contracts and absolve IT procurements from the strictures of the Buy American Act.Davis also included a directive for a share-in-savings program that would not be limited to IT. He also would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish a Technical Innovations Office.“We have bipartisan and administration support on almost all of the amendments,” Wojciak said.The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), includes a provision to establish an E-Government Office within OMB led by a Senate-confirmed official. Meanwhile, the House version calls for a governmentwide CIO and includes figures for OMB’s e-government fund that vary from the Senate’s authorizations [see story at ].