Written Testimony of Donald K Bice Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration and Gary S Washington Chief Information Officer and Lynn Moaney Deputy Chief Financial Officer United States Department of Agriculture Before the Subcommittees on Information Technology and Government Operations of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform United States House of Representatives Thank you Chairman Meadows Chairman Hurd Ranking Member Kelly and Ranking Member Connolly and members of the subcommittees for the opportunity to appear before you today to share the U S Department of Agriculture’s USDA progress on implementation of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act FITARA We would also like to thank you for your continued commitment to improve Information Technology IT management across the Federal government The United States Department of Agriculture touches the lives of every American through its mission to provide leadership on agriculture food natural resources rural infrastructure nutrition and related issues To successfully accomplish its mission the Department operates more than 300 programs through an extensive network of Federal State and local cooperators These programs affect every American every day by providing a safe and stable food supply nutrition assistance renewable energy rural economic development care for forest and conservation lands and global opportunities for farm and forest products These programs also hold the answers to pressing global issues the need for renewable energy increasing crop yields to combat hunger protecting the food supply and fostering trade for agricultural commodities Secretary Perdue and Deputy Secretary Censky are committed to creating a new operating model for IT at USDA that enables the Department to be a facts-based data-driven and customer-focused organization As we announced in December 2017 USDA is implementing four key IT modernization strategies that are consistent with the goals of FITARA strengthen strategic IT governance consolidate end-user services and data centers enable a strategic approach to data management and improve the USDA customer experience To accelerate execution of these activities USDA is teaming with the White House Office of American Innovation OAI and the General Services Administration GSA Centers of Excellence COE In addition to statutory authority to assist in managing our IT portfolio provided by Congress in our annual appropriations acts FITARA solidifies USDA’s Departmental CIO’s authority to oversee the efficient and effective use of IT In 2015 upon the inception of FITARA USDA assumed a leading position with an “A” on our common baseline plan Since 2015 USDA has continued to strive to meet the spirit of FITARA by being the only CFO Act Agency that implemented the IT Management Maturity Model ITMMM and being one of six 6 Agencies to receive an “A” on the MEGABYTE portion of the scorecard USDA has consistently proven itself as a leader in embracing FITARA We continue to implement FITARA across USDA and deftly integrate it into our daily processes and our IT Modernization initiatives To improve leadership alignment and the efficiency of operations across USDA’s information technology activities the Department recently decreased the number of positions with the title Chief Information Officer CIO from 22 to a single USDA CIO We have designated a permanent or acting Assistant CIO responsible for IT activities for each programmatic mission area and Departmental Administration of USDA for a total of nine Assistant CIOs across the Department A shift in responsibilities for these roles supports a new IT operating model that is strategic customer-focused and data-driven Under this operating model mission area Assistant CIOs are better able to focus on utilizing IT to improve mission-specific services and programs with the overall goal of improving the customer experience Standard performance elements for evaluation of Assistant CIOs have been created under the direction of the Departmental CIO In addition the Department has re-chartered the Executive Information Technology Investment Review Board E-Board to focus its efforts on the review of strategic investments rather than transactional decisions This year the E-Board set an overall goal of standardizing IT systems across USDA and supporting the transition to USDA’s new IT operating model For example the E- Board decided to issue no new contracts for end-user support to consolidate contracts and to support the transition of IT services from component agencies to the Department The USDA Integrated IT Governance Framework IITGF process and Acquisition Approval Request AAR was the foundation for the USDA’s FITARA Common Baseline Plan Implementation of the USDA’s IITGF has enabled the Department to take an enterprise approach to IT and improve the quality of project planning and execution reducing overall project risk Reducing risk in turn increases USDA’s ability to move IT projects that best meet business needs into the production environment more quickly within established cost constraints and with better results for customers In addition to the annual appropriations act authority that requires the CIO to approve all IT acquisitions over $25 000 FITARA gives the CIO the authority to weigh in on IT projects much earlier in the budget cycle while enabling a clear line of sight across all phases of IT implementation While this authority is critical to ensuring the CIO is appropriately involved in the IT systems selection process just as important is the role the CIO is currently playing in the USDA leadership team The Deputy Secretary has established a governance structure that involves regular meetings with the Chief Executive Officers CXO’s in the Department where administrative and management issues are discussed In addition the CIO the Chief Acquisition Officer CAO and the Chief Financial Officer CFO participate in regular meetings with the CXO’s and business center leads in USDA mission areas This ensures potential issues with IT are addressed early and often The CIO also actively engages with all key stakeholders through the IT governance and investment management processes For example the CIO holds regular monthly engagements with program project and investment managers and agency leadership to evaluate and discuss the portfolio health of their investments USDA also supports the Data Center Optimization Initiative DCOI to consolidate inefficient infrastructure optimize existing facilities achieve cost savings and transitioning to more efficient infrastructure such as cloud services As part of USDA’s new IT operating model to consolidate IT infrastructure services under the management of the CIO the Department has set a goal of reducing its data center footprint and movement to the cloud from a baseline of 39 data centers to two enterprise data centers by the close of fiscal year FY 2019 This year USDA developed a validation and verification process for conducting onsite visits to inventory data centers and is implementing additional protocols to better verify the accuracy and reliability of the data center applications and IT hardware infrastructure inventory To date in FY 2018 USDA has closed 18 data centers Overall USDA has closed more than 2 100 data centers through DCOI and the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative FDCCI USDA reported cost avoidance and savings from the DCOI data center consolidation activities at $4 68 million through quarter two of FY 2018 In FY 2019 USDA anticipates a $10 million savings resulting from rate reductions for all Department-level hosting shared service offerings These FY 2019 rate reductions are enabled in part by data center consolidation and migration at USDA’s Enterprise Data Centers located in Kansas City and St Louis Additional rate reductions for FY 2020 and FY 2021 rate reductions are also expected As USDA reduces to 2 enterprise data centers by the end of FY 2019 the Department will also see major improvements in other DCOI metrics such as energy metering and facility utilization The anticipated savings will allow agencies to invest in program delivery or IT modernization efforts such as Farm loan automation commercial cloud computing transition and cybersecurity remediation activities USDA also recognizes the importance of training recruiting and retaining a high-quality information technology workforce equipped with the necessary skills to support IT modernization and operations In FY 2017 we conducted IT workforce assessments for each agency and staff office within the USDA to identify baseline skillsets needed now and in the future to support the USDA missions This effort will decrease the number of outdated position descriptions and better define elements to recruit and build talent management It will also support the USDA in its mission to enable effective strategic decision-making improve the customer experience and create a data-driven IT workforce Finally USDA is committed to using effective category management to leverage USDA’s buying power and to reduce overall costs USDA is in the process of consolidating End-User support services from 26 agencies and offices across the Department into a single support organization at the Department level This process relies on effective category management to leverage USDA’s buying power and to reduce overall costs while streamlining the portfolio of applications devices and services in-use Because of this focus on category management principles and practices 75 percent of USDA’s software spend is captured through enterprise agreements For example USDA recently consolidated its 74 000 copies of Adobe Acrobat through an enterprise license saving $9 2 million With the standardization of laptop and desktop purchases on a USDA blanket purchase agreement BPA the end-user environment becomes less complex and more efficiently supportable benefitting the consolidation initiative immensely The USDA is providing reference for and guidance on these activities through new Departmental Directives currently in development and clearance in the Department IT modernization and implementation of FITARA at USDA is part of a purposeful strategy to improve the return on investment that IT spending creates through business outcomes for the Department’s customers USDA is committed to IT modernization efforts to achieve benefits for our customers and our employees The continuing improvement of the objectives and metrics set by FITARA will assist us in meeting this goal Thank you for your thoughtful approach and support of this important legislation that is having a positive impact on USDA’s ability to rapidly implement a comprehensive IT modernization strategy and operating model I look forward to your questions and to continuing to work with you to further improve IT implementation at USDA and across the Federal government Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration U S Department of Agriculture Donald Bice Donald Bice has been the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration since February 2017 and had been acting in that role since September 2017 As the career lead over administrative operations and management for USDA Mr Bice utilizes innovative techniques to improve the management of the Department to achieve significant taxpayer savings and improved efficiency and effectiveness of USDA’s programs Prior to being asked to serve in that capacity Mr Bice held multiple positions in USDA’s Office of Budget and Program Analysis OBPA over 30 years Most recently Mr Bice was the Associate Director of OBPA and responsible for managing the development and execution of the Department’s $140 billion budget managing the Department’s regulatory and legislative reporting processes and coordinating the Department’s performance improvement activities Mr Bice is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the American University Washington College of Law Chief Information Officer U S Department of Agriculture Gary Washington Gary Washington was selected as the USDA Chief Information Officer CIO in February 2018 Formerly the CIO for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Washington also has served as CIO and Director of the Information Technology Division for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Prior to his appointments as the CIO of USDA APHIS and NRCS Washington was a portfolio manager in the Electronic Government Office in the Executive Office of the President-Office of Management and Budget where he was responsible for managing the Internal Effectiveness and Efficiency portfolio Additionally Washington managed the financial management human resources and infrastructure lines of business and the E-gov initiatives Washington also worked at the Food and Drug Administration where he was the Director of IT Governance and the Deputy Director of Infrastructure and at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms where he was the service manager for one of the first nationwide seat management programs Washington spent 5 years in private industry as well as 10 years as a Computer Operator and Command Control Specialist in the U S Air Force He is an elected member of the Association for Federal Information Resource Managers and a 2006 graduate of the Industry Advisory Council Partners Program Washington is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Strayer University in Washington D C Deputy Chief Financial Officer U S Department of Agriculture Lynn M Moaney Ms Moaney has over 30 years developing and maintaining financial standards across the Federal Government and a proven record of leading organizational initiatives Experience includes implementation of financial and administrative systems budget formulation and execution acquisitions audit risk management shared services policy development and financial operations support Currently Ms Moaney is the Deputy Chief Financial Officer DCFO of the U S Department of Agriculture In her role as Acting CFO as well as Deputy CFO she is responsible to “oversee all financial management activities relating to the programs and operations of the agency ” She has direct management of approximately 1 700 of employees located at the Washington D C headquarters and National Finance Center in New Orleans LA Fort Worth TX and Kansas City MO The USDA is one of the largest civilian agencies in the federal government with over 100 000 employees and over one-third of the non-taxable debt The financial organization of the agency accounts for over $150 billion in program level funds and over $100 billion in loans These programs support the areas of forest maintenance and fire-fighting farm commodity support food safety agriculture development foreign agriculture trade domestic and foreign nutrition services rural development and agriculture research In addition to the financial management of the programs of the USDA Ms Moaney has responsibility for the National Finance Center NFC NFC is a Payroll Services Center of Excellence and a Human Resources Center of Excellence for the Federal Government Through its high quality low cost approach NFC annually processes payroll for 170 federal organizations totaling $100 billion in salaries for 650 000 civilian federal employees Ms Moaney re-joined the USDA OCFO organization in 2014 when she was selected to be the Associate Chief Financial Officer over Financial Policy and Planning In this role she was responsible for Department-wide development and implementation of fiscal and travel policy She serves as the Controller of the Working Capital Fund WCF and Shared Cost programs SCPs which includes formulating the $813M WCF budget and $33M SCP budget providing agency allocation amounts and monitoring budget execution Her responsibility also included establishing Departmental policy related to maintaining internal controls in compliance with OMB Circular No A-123 to achieve the objectives of effective and efficient operations reliable financial reporting and compliance with applicable laws and regulation Furthermore she is responsible for improper payment mitigation and reporting as well as debt management audit follow-up and overall administrative support including Continuity of Operations planning and Emergency Preparedness for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer Prior to this position Ms Moaney served as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Federal Communications Commission where she was responsible for the day-to-day management and development of financial systems budget audit findings and remediation financial statements and new or proposed changes to policy and procedures that affect financial operations