WASHINGTON — February 13, 2020 — Today, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) introduced the bipartisan Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act, a bill that will establish a program at GSA to facilitate the adoption of modern technology by executive agencies. This is a light touch codification of the CoE program, which will have the following responsibilities upon request by an executive agency:
- Modernize information technology and how a customer interacts with an executive agency
- Improve cooperation between commercial and executive agency information technology sectors
- Assist executive agencies with planning and adoption of a more efficient commercial cloud computing system, tools to help Americans receive support from and communicate with an executive agency; contact centers and other related costumer supports; efficient use of data management, analysis, and reporting; and optimized infrastructure, including for data centers, and to reduce operating costs.
- Share best practices and expertise an executive agency
- Other responsibilities that the Director of TTS may identify as necessary
“I am pleased to once again work across the aisle with my friend Mark Meadows to modernize our government agencies. I applaud the work that the Centers of Excellence have already completed and look forward to codifying this program,” said Rep. Khanna. “This bill and these centers will to continue to save money for the American Taxpayer and bring state of the art technology to our federal government. In such partisan times, this effort is a good reminder that there are many issues that we can still come together on for the betterment of our nation”
“Congress should take every opportunity possible to make government more effective and efficient as we work to better serve Americans everywhere,” said Rep. Meadows. “By bringing the best of private sector innovation to the federal government’s IT systems, these Centers of Excellence will allow agencies to better communicate with the Americans they serve, all while saving the taxpayer tens of millions by making agencies more efficient. IT modernization is increasingly important for innovations both within and outside government, and I want to thank Rep. Khanna of California for his bipartisan work on this critical initiative. I’m glad to join him.”
The Centers of Excellence (CoE) sits underneath Technology Transformation Services (TTS) at General Services Administration (GSA), and was established in 2017. Depending on its current engagement phases, it is a 50-150 person enterprise integration consultancy with a mission of accelerating IT modernization by leveraging private sector innovation. It centralizes best technological and modernization practices and expertise for the transformation of executive agencies.
It currently has the following six “centers”: artificial intelligence, cloud adoption, contact center, customer experience, data and analytics, and infrastructure optimization.
The CoEs are currently working or have worked with the following agencies: USDA, HUD, OPM, CSPC, DoD/JAIC. The partnership with USDA saved the agency an estimated $43 million in cost savings.
Read the Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act here.
Posted February 13, 2020
Source: Office of Congressman Ro Khanna
