Government Reform

The federal government will never be able to greatly improve its operations and services to taxpayers unless it learns how to take better advantage of the tremendous opportunities afforded by modern information technology. Legislation now before Congress--the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1995 (S. 946)-- offers many construction ways to strengthen the government's management of information and technology and would help reduce the many low-value, high-risk information systems projects that continue to be developed at great expense without fully applying modern management practices. This testimony (1) provides a brief overview of the pervasive nature of the government's information management problems, (2) contrasts how leading organizations manage information technology with how federal agencies accomplish this task, and (3) highlights provisions in S. 946 that could go a long way to address key accountability and implementation problems that have been stumbling blocks towards achieving real results.