Davis: Shake up GSA

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) wants to reorganize the General Services Administration to make it more efficient and to minimize the chances that its divisions will offer competing services, according to House staff members.

Davis, who heads the House Government Reform Committee, "believes there needs to be better coordination" among the Federal Supply Service, Federal Technology Service and Public Building Service, said David Marin, Davis' spokesman.

However, there is no specific legislation to that end, he said. Davis has identified the matter as a priority for next year.

Melissa Wojciak, committee staff director, discussed Davis' intentions this morning at the Program Management Summit in Washington, D.C., which was produced by FCW Events. Wojciak was part of a panel discussion on what a second Bush term means for federal information technology spending.

GSA spokeswoman Mary Alice Johnson declined to comment, citing a standing policy against commenting on pending legislation.

Also at the summit, Harris Miller, president of the IT Association of America, predicted that officials at many agencies, not including Defense and intelligence organizations, can expect to see their IT budgets grow only slowly during the next few years.

That will not be "because IT is going to be singled out, but because domestic discretionary spending in general is gong to be targeted," he said.

Peter Levine, minority counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Defense Department officials' major challenge continues to be the sheer number of IT systems, and the lack of interoperability.

"It's a systemic problem, it's a processes problem, it's a personnel problem," he said. "We need one individual at DOD at a very high level" in charge of coordinating solutions, he said. "Nobody has ownership of it."