October 19 2020 Federal Telecommunications Modernization Transitioning from Networx to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Background GSA is providing assistance through Periodically the General Services Administration GSA negotiates new contracts through which federal agencies can acquire their telecommunications services Current contracts—known as Networx Washington Interagency Telecommunications System 3 and Regional Local Service Agreements—are scheduled to end on May 31 2023 Each of these contracts has been extended twice In FY2019 agencies spent about $2 5 billion on services acquired through these contracts with about $2 billion going to Networx EIS Overview The new GSA telecommunications services acquisition contract vehicle is Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions EIS On August 1 2017 the GSA announced that it had awarded EIS contracts to 10 vendors These contracts have a combined value of up to $50 billion and are for a possible period of up to 15 years—one 5-year base period and two 5-year option periods According to the Government Accountability Office GAO more than 135 agencies will transition 32 types of services and millions of voice and data lines to the new contract EIS is intended to deliver       a Transition Coordination Center to provide assistance with inventory validation transition planning and solicitation development and Transition Ordering Assistance for requirements development source selection and proposal evaluation The Transition Coordination Center was put in place in January 2016 Transition Ordering Assistance was finalized in March 2017 Figure 1 Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Timeline cost savings resulting from increased supplier competition and price transparency qualified industry suppliers who can deliver a complete portfolio of cyber-security solutions an ability to incorporate emerging technologies as they become available and flexibility to address unique agency requirements The Transition to EIS In 2017 GSA identified several critical milestones Figure 1 that agencies should meet to ensure they will have completely transitioned to EIS before their current contracts expire These dates were set in an effort to avoid the costly delays associated with previous transitions Agencies have principal responsibility for the transition According to GSA agencies must        identify key personnel for the transition engage expertise from agency leadership to build a transition team of telecommunications managers acquisition experts and financial staff conduct an inventory of services to be transitioned develop a transition plan and schedule that includes GSA’s major transition milestones prepare solicitations for task orders place task and service orders and develop a process to review accept reject and pay for services Source CRS based on General Services Administration data In April 2020 GAO testified that the majority of the 19 federal agencies it had studied had not met the two 2019 milestones and were not on track to meet the final 2022 milestone Table 1 https crsreports congress gov Federal Telecommunications Modernization Transitioning from Networx to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Table 1 Status and Plans for Completing EIS Transition Activities by GSA Milestone Dates as of April 2020 EIS transition activity GSA’s milestone date to complete activity Agencies that completed or plan to complete activity by milestone date Agencies that did not or do not plan to complete activity by milestone date Milestone 1 3 31 2019 5 14 Milestone 2 9 30 2019 1 18 Milestone 3 9 30 2022 8 11 achieved in this initial assessment the better positioned an agency is expected to be to fully transition to EIS and achieve 100% transition by the September 30 2022 milestone date Table 2 Percent Transition to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions by Agency as of April 2020 Source Government Accountability Office analysis of data provided by agency officials Telecommunications Fully Implementing Established Transition Planning Practices Would Help Agencies Reduce Risk of Costly Delays GAO-20-458T March 4 2020 https www gao gov products GAO-20-458T Note For milestone definitions see Figure 1 Comparison to Previous Transitions GSA’s establishment of early transition milestone dates was in response to the significant delays that occurred during the last two contract transitions GAO found that those delays led to “hundreds of millions of dollars in increased costs and missed savings ” Delays associated with the transition that began in 1998 resulted in an estimated $74 million in missed savings The transition to Networx which began in 2007 took 33 months longer than planned and the majority of agencies experienced transition delays In 2013 GAO reported that these delays resulted in an increase of $66 4 million in costs to GSA The delays also resulted in an estimated $329 million in lost savings because agencies continued to order services from the previous contract even after the same services were available through Networx generally at lower rates At the time GAO attributed the delays to inadequate project planning Legislative Review of Transition In August 2020 the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Operations added EIS transition status to its “scorecard ” which it publishes twice a year to assess compliance with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act FITARA The subcommittee assessed by percentage the extent to which 24 agencies had moved off expiring contracts Table 2 The new EIS category was not used in agencies’ final grade in August 2020 but it may be a factor in future scoring The highest reported EIS transition percentages at or over 70% were at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission National Science Foundation and Department of the Treasury The lowest percentages at or under 30% transitioned were at the Department of State Department of Defense Department of Homeland Security Department of Commerce Small Business Administration Office of Personnel Management and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Overall 6 out of 24 agencies reported over 50% EIS adoption The higher the percentage Source FITARA 10 0 Scorecard https oversight house gov sites democrats oversight house gov files Scorecard%2010%20%20USAID%20corrected pdf Note Percentages at or above 70% are shown in green percentages at or below 30% are shown in red Additional Legislative Activity 116th Congress The House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing “Making IT a Priority for the Federal Government ” on March 4 2020 The hearing examined several initiatives of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service The service operates several programs to help agencies modernize their existing information technology infrastructure and adopt new technologies EIS was one of the three topics for the hearing No legislation has been introduced in the 116 th Congress that would directly impact current telecommunications modernization efforts Patricia Moloney Figliola Specialist in Internet and Telecommunications Policy https crsreports congress gov IF11668 Federal Telecommunications Modernization Transitioning from Networx to Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Disclaimer This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service CRS CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role CRS Reports as a work of the United States Government are not subject to copyright protection in the United States Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS However as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material https crsreports congress gov IF11668 · VERSION 2 · NEW