In the waning days of the 115th Congress, several management-related bills were passed and sent to the White House:
S-2276, to require agencies to report on in their annual budget justification to Congress on outstanding recommendations from GAO and IG reports.
S-3031, under which agencies would have to assess their properties under new guidance to be set by the GSA on identifying the age and condition of property and the extent to which it is used and needed. When a piece of property is declared excess, other federal agencies would have an opportunity to claim it; if unclaimed, there would be a period for state agencies to claim property, after which the property would be made available for sale or donation to the public.
HR-4147, which includes the text of a bill called the Open Government Data Act requiring open government data assets to be published as machine-readable data, requiring agencies to maintain a comprehensive data inventory for all data assets they create, designating a chief data officer responsible for lifecycle data management and other specified functions, and establishing in OMB a Chief Data Officer Council for establishing government-wide best practices for the use, protection, dissemination, and generation of data and for promoting data sharing agreements among agencies.
HR-7327, to establish a Federal Acquisition Security Council and to mitigate supply chain risks in IT procurement.
President Trump has already signed into law (P.L. 115-336) a bill to further the move away from paper-based government services, including by requiring that any public-facing paper-based form, application or service be made available in a digital format. It also would promote the use of electronic signatures on government forms and require that all public-facing agency websites and digital services meet requirements designed to improve online delivery of services and make information more readily accessible.
Further, the Senate passed S-3085, to establish a Federal Acquisition Security Council to mitigate supply chain risks in IT procurement including the development of protocols for assessing risk, a government-wide strategy, and the authority to recommend exclusion or removal orders to executive agencies. However, that bill did not come up for a House vote, meaning that it will have to start the legislative process anew in the new Congress.
