The House measure, HR-2985, would reauthorize the Technology Modernization Fund, a central fund from which agencies can draw for the up-front costs of making significant IT upgrades. Image: Jamo Images/Shutterstock.com
A bipartisan bill offered in the House would continue a program aimed at replacing legacy IT systems at federal agencies rather than maintaining them, while one offered in the Senate would extend a program of sharing information between the government and private industry about cybersecurity risks.
The House measure, HR-2985, would reauthorize the Technology Modernization Fund, a central fund from which agencies can draw for the up-front costs of making significant IT upgrades that otherwise would be beyond their budget limits, instead of using their available funds to keep outdated systems operating.
“It includes several measures to improve the administration of the TMF and ensure program operations adhere to original congressional intent. It also establishes a Federal Legacy IT Inventory, a new oversight tool that will allow Congress to ensure the federal government is addressing the problem of legacy IT and to assess how well the TMF does in funding related projects,” says a statement from the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. and Gerald Connolly, D-Va.
“These antiquated systems are inefficient, prevent agency mission delivery, and create cybersecurity risks within the federal government,” it says.
The Senate bill would will extend for another 10 years provisions of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 201 to incentivize companies to voluntarily share cybersecurity threat indicators, such as software vulnerabilities, malware, or malicious IP addresses, with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS.
Those provisions have been “instrumental in fostering collaboration between industry leaders and federal agencies . . . providing valuable insights into malicious cyber activities and strengthening our nation’s ability to respond to cyberattacks. Information sharing about security flaws also helps prevent significant breaches and helps CISA support victims of attacks as they recover,” says a statement from sponsors Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
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