Neera Tanden, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said information technology modernization and cybersecurity would be her top priorities once confirmed as director of OMB, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.
Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that advancing IT modernization will enable agencies to better support and meet the needs of citizens.
“We recognize the importance of this modernization during a global pandemic where we need to make sure that our agencies’ information and essentially the public’s privacy is protected and protected well,” Tanden said Tuesday during her nomination hearing.
She also cited the need to deploy modern platforms to better serve the public and challenges when it comes to funding IT modernization efforts.
“The real challenge here is, frankly, it takes an investment of resources in one year, because we don’t have capital budgets or systems that create some disincentives,” Tanden said.
“But I appreciate the resources in the technology modernization fund, and it’s one of the reasons why the president has proposed a substantial increase in TMF, as well as the Information Technology Oversight and Reform [fund].”
