USDA tackles FITARA

The Agriculture Department is among the first agencies to release a Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act implementation plan.

USDA's plan, made public in late November, as agencies gear up to meet the Office of Management and Budget's Dec. 31 deadline, puts the emphasis on making the agency CIO the "single point of accountability" for IT work across the entire agency, but it also makes heavy note of delegation opportunities, a must for an agency with a workforce more than 80,000 strong.

The plan also addresses how the roles of other C-suite executives' roles need to change to meet FITARA's goals of better coordinated and streamlined IT acquisition. Under the new plan, the USDA CIO approves the hiring of bureau CIOs. Additionally, USDA established a new senior level post to manage FITARA implementation across the agency.

While USDA was one of many agencies to receive a "D" on the recent FITARA Implementation Scorecard from Congress, USDA officials have previously said that their FITARA implementation plan was receiving rave reviews from OMB.