The chief technology officer position established last year by executive order could face a variety of challenges in executing a mission that goes beyond traditional CTO responsibilities and including promoting technological innovation, reducing health care costs, protecting the homeland, and addressing other national goals, the Congressional Research Service has said.
President Obama appointed the former Virginia secretary of technology Aneesh Chopra as CTO in April, but CRS identified early challenges including negotiating domains of responsibilities within the White House and with executive branch agencies that have overlapping missions.
It said the White House has not provided detailed information on the roles and responsibilities of the CTO, its organizational structure, staffing plans, or relationship to White House offices and federal agencies.
The White House has also not attempted to create a statutory foundation for the CTO that could define its role.
However, Rep. Gerald Connolly introduced the Chief Technology Officer Act of 2009, HR-1910, which would make the position permanent and establish it as an executive office of the president.
The act assigns 13 duties to the office, focused primarily on the federal government’s use of IT and its role in securing the national information infrastructure.
However, CRS raised a number of questions that will likely need to be resolved before the act moves beyond the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, regarding the duties of the office, level of funding it should receive, who the CTO should report to and how many staffers should work there, among others.