Fed IT Reform Bill Introduced In Senate, Spurred By HealthCare.gov

A bipartisan team of senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would overhaul how the government buys and builds information technology systems.

The move from Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, was spawned in part by the abysmal performance of the Obama administration’s online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov, which was largely out of commission for the first month after its Oct. 1 launch.

Similar legislation passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier this year and is awaiting action from the full House. A co-sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has predicted the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act would have a strong chance of passing given public attention to HealthCare.gov’s poor performance.

“The systemically flawed rollout of HealthCare.gov is one high-profile example of IT procurement failures, but numerous more projects incur cost overruns, project delays and are abandoned altogether,” Moran said in a statement.