House version of e-government bill introduced

Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, is shepherding the House version of the E-Government Act of 2001, a bill that addresses a host of federal information technology issues, including the creation of a federal chief information officer. Turner introduced his version of the bill (H.R. 2458) last week. The bill creates an annual $200 million interagency e-gov fund. Like the Senate version, the bill calls for a federal CIO to run a new Office of Information Policy and report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget. That reporting requirement represents a change of heart for Turner, who sponsored legislation in the 106th Congress to create a federal CIO with top-level authority and direct access to the President. "We like to think of it as moving forward towards a position we're going to get a little more bipartisan support on," said Turner's spokesman, Colin Vanostern. According to Vanostern, the new legislation is more comprehensive and is a result of the feedback Turner received from both the Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as OMB. "It gives the federal CIO review authority of IT budgets and also establishes the e-gov fund," he said. Turner's bill is the companion bill to S. 803, introduced in May by Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Conrad Burns, R-Mont. At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Sean O'Keefe, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, voiced concern that the Senate bill does not do enough to advance the Bush administration's management and performance plan. The Bush administration has said it will not create a separate federal CIO, as both the Senate and House bills recommend, but rather the responsibilities of a federal CIO will remain under the jurisdiction of OMB's deputy director for management. Last month, Mark Forman, a vice president for e-business at Unisys Corp., was appointed to the newly created OMB position of associate director for information technology and e-government. Forman will report to OMB's deputy director for management when that position is filled. At the E-Gov 2001 conference in Washington Thursday, Forman called on agencies to simplify and unify their IT systems.