WASHINGTON – The IT Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS), a division of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), voiced its support today for the Modernizing Outdated and Vulnerable Equipment and Information Technology (MOVE IT), a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kas.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Reps. Will Hurd (R-Tex.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), to improve federal information technology (IT).

"We support the MOVE IT Act because it would give the federal government an overdue upgrade to move from the analogue age into the digital era," said Senior Vice President for Public Sector Trey Hodgkins. "This bill creates an opportunity for agencies to effectively fund their IT needs for cloud computing, IT modernization, cybersecurity and future IT development. We thank Congressman Hurd and Senators Udall and Moran and their co-sponsors for their leadership and urge their colleagues to support the MOVE IT Act so the federal government can keep pace with innovation and taxpayers can benefit from cutting-edge technology."

In letters of support for the Senate and House companion bills, ITAPS said the provisions would make significant strides in changing the way the federal government funds and modernizes IT solutions by:

  • Offering support and strengthening the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FEDRAMP), to institute a true “qualify once, use many times” approach to setting and enforcing security criteria and metrics for cloud providers and agencies in the federal market,
  • Providing a clear focus for better industry and government collaboration,
  • Providing an accelerated approval process,
  • Provide more flexible funding for IT modernization,
  • Training agency and industry personnel,
  • Establishing a requirement to set key performance metrics for the FEDRAMP office, and
  • Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of individual agencies who want to deploy cloud solutions.

Hodgkins said ITAPS and its member companies are committed to working with the bill sponsors to see the smart proposals in the MOVE IT Act adopted and to working with agencies to adopt innovative technologies that will led to better constituent services, deliver greater efficiencies for the taxpayer, and enable greater capabilities and technological advantages for the government mission.

Related [Public Sector]