HR4601NOV4

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending November 4, 2005

H.R.4061 To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the management of information technology within the Department of Veterans Affairs by providing for the Chief Information Officer of that Department to have authority over resources, budget, and personnel related to the support function of information technology, and for other purposes.

BRIEF

The bill authorizes the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop, approve, implement, integrate and oversee policies and procedures and systems relating to the VA information technology.

According to the bill sponsor the VA, although making progress, has been in a long-term struggle to manage its information resources funding and upgrades. $600 million went into a system to automate compensation and benefits, ten years ago, and the system has not yet been implemented, he said. Another system took $342 million for an unsuccessful financial management system. The existing system for medical information, VISTA, is 25 years old and spends $485 million yearly to maintain.

The bill would put changing the scenario in the hands of the department’s CIO.

Sponsor: representative Steve Buyer (R-IN-4^th)

Vote: Passed House 408 to 0 November 2, 2005 (RC 560)

Cost to the taxpayers: The problem may well cost money to fix but the bill does not authorize or appropriate funds, only authorizes the CIO to solve the problem.