Hurd, Kelly look to codify, elevate federal CIO role

Reps. Will Hurd and Robin Kelly are looking to boost CIO, CISO authorities.

The leaders of the House panel in charge of federal technology oversight are looking to codify and elevate the roles of federal CIO and federal chief information security officer.

Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), the chair and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform IT Subcommittee, have introduced a bill to make the federal CIO report directly to the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Currently, the federal CIO reports to the deputy director for management.

Under the legislation, the federal CISO would report directly to the federal CIO.

The bill would also reauthorize and officially rename the Office of E-Government as the Office of the Federal CIO. Hurd and Kelly also want the federal CIO to make recommendations to Congress to consolidate and streamline IT governmentwide.

"No entity can operate securely and efficiently without a CIO in the year 2018, including the federal government," said Hurd. "This bill does more than just rename an office. It makes a clear statement that the federal CIO is in charge of coordinating IT policy across the government in order to ensure that our agencies are able to provide better, faster and more cost-efficient services for the American people."

Kelly said that "codifying the roles of the federal CIO and CISO will help streamline government IT processes and advance modernization efforts to bring government into the 21st century."