Report: Administration mulls new federal IT unit

Fallout from the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website could include major changes to the way the federal government hires IT personnel and manages large scale IT projects, according to a Jan. 3 report in the Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration is considering streamlining the process for hiring IT specialists to match the velocity of the private sector, and using executive branch authority to do it. Another proposal would have government IT workers get private sector experience through rotations at various companies – a reversal of the current White House innovation fellows program. Among the more radical changes under consideration is the creation of a one-stop tech shop inside the government to work on high profile public-facing websites like HealthCare.gov, rather than having each agency responsible for its own procurement, design, and production.

An unnamed federal official is quoted in the article saying there is “fierce urgency to tackle the problem,” of IT procurement, and the government planned to take a hard look at 50 IT projects under development. "I can definitely narrow that list down to a point where I can actually take a look at it in a much more in-depth way," the official told the Wall Street Journal.

It’s not clear what changes will be made, but officials cited in the article say moves could be coming as early as the first quarter of 2014.

The government tracks spending and scheduling for high-profile IT projects through the IT Dashboard, a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget. The dashboard data is updated infrequently -- the site is current to Aug. 30, 2013, about a month before the launch of HealthCare.gov, and isn’t due for a refresh until next month.