Because the Trump administration’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) works to slash authorities waste, a bipartisan invoice in Congress is aiming to convey the federal authorities’s pc programs “out of the Stone Age.”
The bipartisan Strengthening Company Administration And Oversight Of Software program Belongings (SAMOSA) Act handed the Home in December, and Sen. Joni Ernset, R-Iowa, is main efforts to get it handed within the higher chamber.
Ernst, the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, mentioned the SAMOSA Act will “bring Washington out of the Stone Age and into the 21st century.”
Fox Information Digital is instructed the invoice may probably save $750 million yearly for taxpayers by consolidating federal companies’ cloud computing software program licenses. A supply near the proposal mentioned “fixing federal IT procurement will be a key part of her sweeping efforts as chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus to downsize government and eliminate more than $2 trillion in waste.”
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Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduces Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be director of Nationwide Intelligence, throughout a Senate Intelligence Committee affirmation listening to in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. ( Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)
“If the government allowed meaningful competition in bidding for software, taxpayers could save up to $750 million a year,” Ernst mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital. “Let’s pass my bill to force federal agencies to take commonsense steps when purchasing software, instead of throwing away taxpayer dollars like monopoly money.”
The legislative proposal has the assist of trade teams.
“The SAMOSA Act is a vital step toward modernizing the federal IT infrastructure, ensuring fair software licensing practices in its procurement and saving money for taxpayers,” Ryan Triplette, Government Director of the Coalition for Honest Software program Licensing, mentioned in a press release to Fox Information Digital. “There aren’t many areas in Congress where we see bipartisan support, but ensuring our IT infrastructure is as efficient, secure and cost-effective as possible is one of them. The Coalition for Fair Software Licensing will continue working with partners in Congress to get the SAMOSA Act across the finish line and signed into law.”
The invoice offers the Chief Data Officer of each authorities company not more than 18 months to prepare a “comprehensive assessment” of the software program paid for or deployed all through the company. The overview ought to embody a listing of all the present software program, determine contracts for using the software program and their expiration dates and checklist extra charges or prices, together with charges or prices for using cloud providers, not included within the preliminary prices of the contract. The overview ought to then give every company the data essential to “consolidate software entitlements of each agency,” cut back pointless prices and “develop criteria and procedures for how the agency will adopt cost-effective acquisition strategies.”
Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump within the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Photographs)
On the Home aspect, the SAMOSA Act was launched by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 members of Congress.
Ernst penned a letter in November to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who has since exited DOGE whereas reportedly weighing a potential Ohio gubernatorial bid), outlining “a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas for trimming the fat and reducing red ink.”
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Among the many choices, Ernst mentioned “consolidating agencies’ cloud computing software licenses could save $750 million every year.”
She cited a research by Michael Garland, a software program and authorities procurement trade skilled, that discovered Microsoft and Oracle, the world’s two largest software program firms, obtained 25% to 30% of their contracts “without meaningful competition.”
Citing one instance of “vendor-lock,” the research discovered the federal government spent $112 million extra to purchase Microsoft Workplace than Google Workspace “in order to avoid perceived costs to switch.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler speaks at a rally in opposition to the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) outdoors the U.S. Division of Labor (DOL on Feb. 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kena Betancur/VIEWpress)
“A five percent improvement in price performance, due to enhanced software competition, could produce savings up to $750 million annually,” the report mentioned.
It additionally described how the usgovernment spent virtually $2 trillion on Data Know-how (IT) since 1994, and about $300 billion of that expenditure has been on business off-the-shelf (COTS) software program.
“On an annual basis, the government collectively spends $10 to $15 billion on new software and for the maintenance and support of previously purchased software. Unfortunately, the majority of the COTS software spend has been destined for only a limited set of software companies who have managed to create a largely vendor-locked COTS software estate,” Garland wrote. “Until now, the government has had little visibility into how resoundingly its incumbent software estate has been captured by so few. As a result, an oligarchy of software companies has been free to use fear, uncertainty, and sometimes questionable business practices to make authentic competitions against incumbent software applications relatively rare.”
Ernst’s letter additionally pointed to how the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) recognized 10 crucial federal IT legacy programs – or programs which might be outdated or out of date – that had been most in want of modernization in 2019. The legacy programs had been mentioned to supply “vital support to agencies’ missions” however ranged from about eight to 51 years outdated and “collectively cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain.”
A number of of the programs used older languages, comparable to Frequent Enterprise Oriented Language (COBOL).
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“The government runs on ancient computers & software. Needs an upgrade!” Musk wrote on X in November.
