The federal government invests more than $90 billion annually in information technology (IT) services, products, and projects. The USDA is projected to invest over $2.4 billion for IT products and services.
Many of the federal IT projects fail, incur cost overruns, schedule slippages, or contribute little to enhancing mission capabilities. This underperformance of federal IT projects can be traced to a lack of disciplined and effective management and inadequate executive-level oversight.
Congressional Oversight, Committee on Oversight and Accountability
To improve agencies’ IT acquisitions and operations management, Congress enacted the law (PUBLIC LAW 113–291) known as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) in December 2014, with the intent of strengthening and supporting the Clinger Cohen Act (40 U. S.C. §§11101-11 704).
Public Law 113-291
TITLE VIII—ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS
Subtitle D—Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform
Sec. 831. Chief Information Officer authority enhancements.
Sec. 832. Enhanced transparency and improved risk management in information technology investments.
Sec. 833. Portfolio review.
Sec. 834. Federal data center consolidation initiative.
Sec. 835. Expansion of training and use of information technology cadres.
Sec. 836. Maximizing the benefit of the Federal strategic sourcing initiative.
Sec. 837. Governmentwide software purchasing program.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
In June 2015, the OMB issued the Management and Oversight of Federal IT Memoranda (M-15-14) to provide specific guidance on the implementation of FITARA across the federal sector and ensure that government-wide implementation is consistent with existing laws, policies, and management practices.
FITARA Scorecard and Congressional Hearings
Soon after the enactment of FITARA, Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee alongside GAO developed the FITARA Scorecard, which grades agencies from A to F on its performance and efforts of FITARA implementation. The first scorecard was released in November 2015. Since then, the scorecard is released twice a year (May and December).
Visit fitara.meritalk.com/view/usda to see an overview of USDA grades.
In addition, the Subcommittees holds hearings on the overall federal government implementation of FITARA.
FITARA Implementation
In November 2015, USDA developed the United States Department of Agriculture Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act Common Baseline and Implementation Plan (PDF, 964 KB), in response to the M-15-14 mandate. USDA’s plan reinforces the role and authority of the USDA CIO in establishing an inclusive, integrated governance process that manages IT as a strategic resource.
The USDA is taking an enterprise approach to implementing FITARA to drive effective business processes and decision-making to support the diverse mission of its Mission Areas.
- DR-3145-001, Oversight and Management of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), provides guidance that USDA shall ensure all applicable policies, procedures, and governance structures are consistent with FITARA’s requirements.
- FITARA Self-Assessment
- FITARA Scorecard Improvement (Mission Area Analysis) (PDF, 328 KB)
- Other related FITARA publicly available information
For more information on USDA implementation of FITARA, feel free to contact us at FITARA@usda.gov.