Six lawmakers have called on the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee to allot an additional $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund in the upcoming COVID-19 relief measure to support updates to federal information technology systems.
The senators wrote a letter onWednesday to the Senate panel saying the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the failures of legacy IT systems and highlighted the need for agencies to advance their network modernization efforts.
“For example, in its June 2020 report, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee identified multiple agencies where IT systems struggle to accommodate large percentages of teleworking federal employees, causing system problems that slow the place of normal functions like claims processing, increasing security risk, and making telework inefficient and frustrating. In other cases, small business owners and citizens were deeply frustrated by poorly functioning claims systems,” the senators wrote in the July 29 letter.
The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and three-time Wash100 Award recipient, Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
Several congressmen on Friday also urged the House leadership to include in the next supplemental spending bill an additional $1 billion for TMF.
