WASHINGTON – The IT Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS), a division of ITI, identified several items of importance to federal contractors that were included in the final Omnibus Appropriations Act and called on Congress to complete action on the sweeping spending proposal and quickly clear it for the president’s signature into law.

“The big ticket item for federal contractors is that the omnibus fully funds the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2016, and that certainty is welcome news,” said Senior Vice President for Public Sector Trey Hodgkins. “The omnibus also gives federal agencies the ability to move forward on sorely needed IT investments. That includes migrating away from costly and ineffective legacy systems and funding enhancements that will help secure federal information systems.”

In addition to fully appropriating operations of the federal government in fiscal year 2016, other provisions of interest identified by ITAPS for technology sector contractors include:

  • Provisions in the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 that clarify the application of the federal governments’ EINSTEIN technology to government-only networks.
  • Clarification that Congress does not approve of, or provide funding for, the creation of a new Office of Labor Compliance at the Department of Labor intended to implement new and onerous compliance requirements that experts have warned would hobble government contracting and drive additional costs for taxpayers for contracted goods and services.
  • Increases in funding for every agency’s cyber-related activities to protect federal information systems and data.
  • Increases in the frequency for public agencies to report on a quarterly basis their cost savings data for IT investments on the IT Dashboard.

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