Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ federal spending oversight and emergency management subcommittee, has asked federal agencies about their efforts to modernize their legacy information technology systems, Nextgov reported Thursday.
Hassan sent letters to the departments of Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security and seven other federal agencies to respond to six questions with regard to their IT modernization efforts by Aug. 3.
The lawmaker wants agencies to provide information on their comprehensive IT modernization plans, five modernization priorities, status of legacy system modernization, initiatives to phase out the use of legacy platforms, coordination between the office of the chief information officer and the chief financial officer’s office on IT acquisitions and how Congress can help facilitate IT system modernization.
“The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 underscores the need for federal agencies to invest in modernizing current IT systems that cannot meet mission expectations in a crisis,” Hassan wrote in the letter. “Failing to do so could result in costly errors, security vulnerabilities, and inability to serve the American people.”
Hassan said the federal government spent approximately $29 billion on maintenance of legacy IT systems in fiscal year 2019.