Press Release
January 20, 2022
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Representatives Darrell Issa (CA-50) and Gerry Connolly (VA-11) launched the bipartisan Congressional IT Modernization Caucus to bring new awareness to the need of federal government to embrace technology, analytics, and innovation to better deliver services to the American public.
“Our nation should not be satisfied only with a leading position in global IT modernization. America must instead commit to the pinnacle of invention, innovation, and discovery,” said Issa. “This is the best way to meet and exceed competition from China and safeguard our technological independence. This bipartisan caucus has a key role to play.”
“The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the consequence of this inaction from the Small Business Administrations’ loan processing system crashing multiple times to the state of Connecticut website not handling more than 8,300 unemployment applications,” said Connolly. “It has become abundantly clear that to generate the necessary resilience against future crises effectively, governments at all levels must fully embrace cutting-edge technology and data analytics.”
The Congressional IT Modernization Caucus will bring together federal policymakers and private enterprises to break through barriers and modernize federal IT to meet the emerging and continued demands of the 21st century. The Caucus will also address IT modernization challenges across government as well as educating other Members on subjects of interest regarding federal IT.
Issa and Connolly are the co-authors of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), the first major federal IT modernization effort in more than 20 years. Since becoming law, FITARA has dramatically reformed the practice of acquiring and managing information technology systems across 24 federal agencies, saving taxpayers more than $20 billion and improving the security of federal IT systems.
Darrell Issa is the Representative of California’s 50th Congressional District. The District encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County and a portion of Riverside County, including the communities of Fallbrook, San Marcos, Valley Center, Ramona, Escondido, Santee, Lakeside, El Cajon, Temecula, and the mountain and desert areas of the San Diego-Imperial County line. Issa served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2011-2015.
