Blog: Darrell Issa's Blog: Issa bill would address $20 billion dollars in Information Technology waste

Statement

The computers and software systems essential to run the federal government are collectively known as "Information Technology" or IT. Last year, the federal government spent approximately $81 billion to maintain or upgrade these systems. Right now, federal agencies waste a lot of your hard-earned money because they do a bad job managing these IT investments.

According to some experts, the cost to taxpayers of IT waste could be as high as $20 billion per year. This week, the Oversight Committee released a video explaining the problem, and heard from top public and private sector IT experts, including the White House's top official on IT investments.

We must work to identify and update obsolete technologies and do a better job of managing the federal government's large IT purchases to improve government efficiency and save taxpayer dollars.

I am drafting legislation to accomplish these goals.

Americans deserve to have a federal government that works as efficiently and effectively as possible. My job as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is to hold government accountable to taxpayers, find areas where government can become more resourceful and examine where we can cut wasteful federal spending.

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