Alan Thomas: Next Phase of Awards Under Technology Modernization Fund to Advance

Alan Thomas, commissioner of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, has said the board that oversees the Technology Modernization Fund plans to award the next round of funding for information technology upgrades at agencies amid uncertainty in budget allocation for TMF in fiscal 2019, Federal Times reported Thursday.

“We did not take into account whether we were going to get another tranche of money in there,” Thomas, a member of the Technology Modernization Board, said Thursday at an Association for Federal Information Resource Management event.

“One of the key things that we’re looking at for projects is the ability to pay back, so there’s a revolving fund.”

The departments of Agriculture, Energy and Housing and Urban Development received $45M in combined funds in June as part of the initial funding awards under TMF.

The House Appropriations Committee passed a bill in July that would add $150M in fiscal 2019 funds to TMF but some Senate lawmakers said they would like to see some results before they obligate more money for the fund, the report added.