The Hill – Op Ed (February 11, 2021)

By Matthew Cornelius, ADI Executive Director

Over the next several weeks, congressional Democrats will work through the budget reconciliation process to pass as much of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan as rules and procedure will allow. With a price tag of nearly $1.9 trillion over the next decade, this recovery legislation will address dozens of critical issues: vaccine distribution, economic impact payments, support for the unemployed, state and local funding, and safely reopening schools, just to name a few.

However, if recent reporting is correct, one critical area of investment that Congress will reject — yet again — is funding for the government’s information technology (IT) infrastructure and cybersecurity upgrades. It has been, unfortunately, a common occurrence over the past several years for legislators and policymakers to treat IT modernization as an ancillary, rather than integral, part of a functioning, competent government. So, it seems, Congress is subjecting itself to the same myopia in this current round of negotiations.