Davis names Putnam to lead new tech subcommittee
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In the House Government Reform Committee, procurement policy oversight will be folded back into the full committee, leaving IT issues under one of four new subcommittees.<br>
House Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Tom Davis has decided to fold procurement policy oversight back into the full committee, leaving IT issues under one of four new subcommittees. The Virginia Republican laid out his 108th Congress agenda yesterday.
When Davis became chairman of the full committee, he said he was considering taking back some of the work of the Technology and Procurement Policy subcommittee, which he chaired for two years.
Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) will chair the new Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Census subcommittee. Now in the second year of his first term, Putnam served as vice chairman of the National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations subcommittee last session.
Rep. William Clay (D-Mo.) is the new ranking minority member, taking over for Jim Turner (D-Texas), who moved on as ranking member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security.
The IT subcommittee will play close attention to implementation of the E-Government Act of 2002, the Federal Information Security Management Act and the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. It will consider developing a grading system for how well agencies follow the E-Government Act and other IT provisions.
Under Putnam, the subcommittee will review federal IT management of cross-agency communication and compatibility with state and local systems. Other priorities will be oversight of data mining in the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program as well as overall federal IT security.
The full committee likely will hold hearings on the revision of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 and a recent report to improve the federal work force. Davis' oversight plan also includes analysis of contracting management at the Energy Department, NASA, the Transportation Security Administration, plus the Veterans Affairs Department's buying schedules.
The full committee will oversee the implementation of FISMA, the E-Government Act and the Digital Tech Corps Act, all of which Davis sponsored. For the first time, the committee will delve into the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's botched Thrift Savings Plan computer system.
Davis also reorganized three other subcommittees and named new leaders: