Senate DOGE Republican pushes bill to bring government computer systems 'out of the stone age'

As the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works to slash authorities waste, a bipartisan measure successful Congress is aiming to bring the national government's machine systems "out of the Stone Age." 

The bipartisan Strengthening Agency Management And Oversight Of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act passed the House successful December, and Sen. Joni Ernset, R-Iowa, is starring efforts to get it passed successful the precocious chamber. 

Ernst, the seat of the Senate DOGE Caucus, said the SAMOSA Act volition "bring Washington retired of the Stone Age and into the 21st century." 

Fox News Digital is told the measure could perchance prevention $750 cardinal annually for taxpayers by consolidating national agencies' unreality computing bundle licenses. A root adjacent to the connection said "fixing national IT procurement volition beryllium a cardinal portion of her sweeping efforts arsenic seat of the Senate DOGE Caucus to downsize authorities and destruct much than $2 trillion successful waste." 

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"If the authorities allowed meaningful contention successful bidding for software, taxpayers could prevention up to $750 cardinal a year," Ernst said successful a connection to Fox News Digital. "Let’s walk my measure to unit national agencies to instrumentality commonsense steps erstwhile purchasing software, alternatively of throwing distant payer dollars similar monopoly money."

The legislative connection has the enactment of manufacture groups. 

"The SAMOSA Act is simply a captious measurement toward modernizing the national IT infrastructure, ensuring just bundle licensing practices successful its procurement and redeeming wealth for taxpayers," Ryan Triplette, Executive Director of the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing, said successful a connection to Fox News Digital. "There aren’t galore areas successful Congress wherever we spot bipartisan support, but ensuring our IT infrastructure is arsenic efficient, unafraid and cost-effective arsenic imaginable is 1 of them. The Coalition for Fair Software Licensing volition proceed moving with partners successful Congress to get the SAMOSA Act crossed the decorativeness enactment and signed into law."

The measure gives the Chief Information Officer of each authorities bureau nary much than 18 months to signifier a "comprehensive assessment" of the bundle paid for oregon deployed passim the agency. The reappraisal should see an inventory of each the existent software, place contracts for the usage of the bundle and their expiration dates and database further fees oregon costs, including fees oregon costs for the usage of unreality services, not included successful the archetypal costs of the contract. The reappraisal should past springiness each bureau the accusation indispensable to "consolidate bundle entitlements of each agency," trim unnecessary costs and "develop criteria and procedures for however the bureau volition follow cost-effective acquisition strategies." 

On the House side, the SAMOSA Act was introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by a bipartisan radical of 20 members of Congress.  

Ernst penned a missive successful November to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who has since exited DOGE portion reportedly weighing a potential Ohio gubernatorial bid), outlining "a trillion dollars’ worthy of ideas for trimming the abdominous and reducing reddish ink." 

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Among the options, Ernst said "consolidating agencies’ unreality computing bundle licenses could prevention $750 cardinal each year." 

She cited a survey by Michael Garland, a software and authorities procurement manufacture expert, that recovered Microsoft and Oracle, the world’s 2 largest bundle companies, received 25% to 30% of their contracts "without meaningful competition." 

Citing 1 illustration of "vendor-lock," the survey recovered the authorities spent $112 cardinal much to bargain Microsoft Office than Google Workspace "in bid to debar perceived costs to switch."

"A 5 percent betterment successful terms performance, owed to enhanced bundle competition, could nutrient savings up to $750 cardinal annually," the study said. 

It besides described however the U.S authorities spent astir $2 trillion connected Information Technology (IT) since 1994, and astir $300 cardinal of that expenditure has been connected commercialized off-the-shelf (COTS) software. 

"On an yearly basis, the authorities collectively spends $10 to $15 cardinal connected caller bundle and for the attraction and enactment of antecedently purchased software. Unfortunately, the bulk of the COTS bundle walk has been destined for lone a constricted acceptable of bundle companies who person managed to make a mostly vendor-locked COTS bundle estate," Garland wrote. "Until now, the authorities has had small visibility into however resoundingly its incumbent bundle property has been captured by truthful few. As a result, an oligarchy of bundle companies has been escaped to usage fear, uncertainty, and sometimes questionable concern practices to marque authentic competitions against incumbent bundle applications comparatively rare." 

Ernst's missive besides pointed to however the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 captious national IT bequest systems – oregon systems that are outdated oregon obsolete – that were astir successful request of modernization successful 2019. The bequest systems were said to supply "vital enactment to agencies' missions" but ranged from astir 8 to 51 years aged and "collectively outgo astir $337 cardinal annually to run and maintain." 

Several of the systems utilized older languages, specified arsenic Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL). 

"The authorities runs connected past computers & software. Needs an upgrade!" Musk wrote connected X successful November.