H.R. 5901 would establish the Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence Program within the General Services Administration (GSA) to encourage and support federal agencies’ efforts to modernize their information technology (IT) systems The bill would require GSA to provide, upon request, assistance in planning and adopting cloud computing systems from commercial sources, optimizing IT infrastructure, and adopting artificial intelligence, among other services.
CBO expects that any budgetary effects from implementing H.R. 5901 would not be significant because the bill would codify many existing policies and practices. In 2017, GSA established Information Technology Centers of Excellence to accelerate IT modernization in federal agencies. The program spends about $500,000 annually.
On September 24, 2020, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 4200, the Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 22, 2020. The two pieces of legislation are similar and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
