WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran’s (R-Kan.) Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act was signed into law by President Trump as part of the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2018. In September, Sen. Moran successfully included the MGT Act as an amendment to the NDAA for FY2018. This bipartisan legislation – introduced along with U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) – will encourage federal agencies to cut wasteful spending and modernize government information technology (IT) and security. Sen. Moran released the following statement after the president signed the legislation into law:

“Today, the president signed into law landmark legislation to reduce wasteful government IT spending and strengthen our nation’s cybersecurity. I applaud the administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their tireless work to get this legislation signed into law and to bring our inefficient, outdated federal IT system into the 21st century. The improved efficiencies from the MGT Act will empower agencies to modernize their legacy IT systems, better protect our data from cyber-attacks and ultimately save billions in taxpayer dollars by reducing long-term spending.”

Items to Note:

• In September, the MGT Act cleared the Senate after Sen. Moran introduced the legislation as an amendment to the NDAA for FY2018. In November, the MGT Act was included in the final conference report for NDAA and was sent to the president’s desk for signature.
• In April, Sen. Moran and Sen. Udall – both members of the Senate Commerce and Appropriations Committees – introduced the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act (S. 990/H.R. 2227) with the support of their colleagues Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). U.S. Representatives Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) – chairman and member, respectively, of the House Subcommittee on Information Technology – introduced the House companion legislation.
• The bill is supported by a number of IT industry stakeholders and trade associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the IT Alliance for the Public Sector (ITAPS), Professional Services Council (PSC), TechNet, Amazon Web Service, Cisco, Adobe, BMC, Brocade, Intel, Microsoft, Business Roundtable, CA Technologies, Compuware, CSRA, Level 3, Unisys and others (full list attached).

The Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act:

• The MGT Act will establish IT working capital funds at 24 federal government agencies and allow them to use savings obtained through streamlining IT systems, replacing legacy products and transitioning to cloud computing for up to three years for further modernization efforts.
• Note: Nearly 75 percent of the $80 billion we are spending annually on federal IT systems is going toward maintaining and operating legacy IT rather than making lasting improvements.
• The bill also sets up a separate centralized modernization fund within the Department of the Treasury for the head of the General Services Administration (GSA) to administer across the federal government in consultation with an expert federal IT board.