Software Update Required: Covid–19 Exposes Need for Federal Investments in Technology

SOFTWARE UPDATE REQUIRED: COVID–19 EXPOSES NEED FOR FEDERAL INVESTMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 15, 2020 Serial No. 116–29 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Budget ( Available on the Internet: www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 42–321 WASHINGTON : 2020 COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky, Chairman SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts, STEVE WOMACK, Arkansas, Vice Chairman Ranking Member HAKEEM S. JEFFRIES, New York ROB WOODALL, Georgia BRIAN HIGGINS, New York BILL JOHNSON, Ohio, BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania Vice Ranking Member ROSA L. DELAURO, Connecticut JASON SMITH, Missouri LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas BILL FLORES, Texas DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois CHRIS STEWART, Utah DANIEL T. KILDEE, Michigan RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina JIMMY PANETTA, California KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma JOSEPH D. MORELLE, New York CHIP ROY, Texas STEVEN HORSFORD, Nevada DANIEL MEUSER, Pennsylvania ROBERT C. ‘‘BOBBY’’ SCOTT, Virginia DAN CRENSHAW, Texas SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee BARBARA LEE, California PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey SCOTT H. PETERS, California JIM COOPER, Tennessee RO KHANNA, California PROFESSIONAL STAFF ELLEN BALIS, Staff Director BECKY RELIC, Minority Staff Director (II) CONTENTS Page Hearing held in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2020 ................................................ 1 Hon. John A. Yarmuth, Chairman, Committee on the Budget .................... 1 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 Hon. Bill Johnson, Vice Ranking Member, Committee on the Budget ........ 6 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 8 Teresa Gerton, President and Ceo, National Academy of Public Adminis- tration ............................................................................................................ 11 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 14 Jennifer Pahlka, Founder, Code for America, and Co-Founder, U.S. Dig- ital Response ................................................................................................. 26 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 28 Rebecca Dixon, Executive Director, National Employment Law Project ..... 36 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 38 Robert Wah, MD, Physician Leader in Healthcare and Technology ............ 49 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 52 Hon. Steve Womack, Ranking Member, Committee on the Budget, statement submitted for the record ..................................................................... 84 Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Member, Committee on the Budget, statement submitted for the record ............................................................................... 87 Hon. Bill Flores, Member, Committee on the Budget, questions submitted for the record ................................................................................................. 92 Hon. George Holding, Member, Committee on the Budget, questions submitted for the record ..................................................................................... 93 Answers to questions submitted for the record .............................................. 94 (III) SOFTWARE UPDATE REQUIRED: COVID–19 EXPOSES NEED FOR FEDERAL INVESTMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2020 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:07 p.m., via Webex, Hon. John A. Yarmuth [Chairman of the Committee] presiding. Present: Representatives Yarmuth, Moulton, Higgins, Scha- kowsky, Kildee, Panetta, Morelle, Horsford, Scott, Jackson Lee; Woodall, Johnson, Flores, Meuser, Crenshaw, and Burchett. Chairman YARMUTH. This hearing will come to order. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Budget Committee’s hearing entitled Software Update Required: COVID–19 Exposes Need for Federal Investments in Technology. I want to welcome our witnesses who are here with us today. At the outset,—I ask unanimous consent that the Chair be authorized to declare a recess at any time to address technical difficulties that may arise with such remote proceedings. Without objection, so ordered. As a reminder, we are holding this hearing virtually in compli- ance with the regulations for committee proceedings pursuant to House Resolution 965. First, consistent with regulations, the Chair or staff designated by the Chair may mute participants’ micro- phones when they are not under recognition for the purposes of eliminating inadvertent background noise. Members are responsible for unmuting themselves when they seek recognition or when they are recognized for their five minutes. We are not permitted to unmute Members unless they explicitly re- quest assistance. If I notice if you have not unmuted yourself, I will ask if you would like the staff to unmute you. If you indicate ap- proval by nodding, staff will unmute your microphone. They will not unmute you under any other conditions. Second, Members must have their cameras on throughout this proceeding and must be visible on screen in order to be recognized. As a reminder, Members may not participate in more than one committee proceeding simultaneously. Finally, to maintain safety in light of the Attending Physician’s new guidance, any Members present in the hearing room—must wear a mask at all times when they are not speaking. Those Mem- bers not wanting to wear a mask, the House rules provide a way (1) 2 to participate remotely from your office without being physically present in the hearing room. Now I will introduce our witnesses. This afternoon, we will be hearing from Ms. Teresa Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administra- tion; Ms. Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America and co- founder of U.S. Digital Response; Ms. Rebecca Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project; and Dr. Robert Wah, a physician leader in healthcare and technology. I will now yield myself five minutes for an opening statement. It is appropriate that today, on our postponed tax day, we are discussing how our nation’s outdated information technology systems have failed to meet the needs of the American people. Rash funding cuts over the past decade have prevented the IRS from modernizing its IT systems, deteriorating the agency’s ability not only to carry out its core function of tax collection and enforcement, but also needlessly prolonging the delivery of stimulus payments to workers and families during the coronavirus pandemic and reces- sion. The pandemic has proved that the quicker the response, the better the outcome, and that the steps taken by Congress to help American workers and families are only as effective as the agencies delivering that relief. Unfortunately, the IRS is not alone in its in- ability to meet the needs of the American people in these perilous times. Instead of helping to generate much needed solutions, outdated IT systems are worsening an already difficult situation as Ameri- cans grapple with unreliable or insufficient internet access, useless automated systems, and overwhelmed and underprepared agencies. Emergency assistance programs across the board have been ham- pered by our antiquated IT systems, leaving families with delayed relief or no relief at all. The most glaring example is unemployment assistance. We are four months into the worst economic downturn since the Great De- pression, and there are still tens of thousands of workers who have filed for jobless claims but have not yet received a single payment. Many are going into debt or default, skipping meals, or losing their homes. State unemployment offices, already underfunded and under- staffed, were left completely unprepared for the massive influx of need, and the big reason for that is the fact that the national—ad- ministrative funding essentially is the same as it was in 2001, and that is before accounting for inflation. This lack of federal investment, combined with old hardware, crashing web services, and the need for new hires proficient in COBOL, their systems’ 60-year-old coding language, have left states scrambling. The antiquated IT systems failed and continue to fail repeatedly. American workers, those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, are paying the price. This aspect of our ongoing crisis is not new. The federal government has long sought to prioritize modern, secure, and shared IT solutions, but funding uncertainties stemming from constrained discretionary funding under budget caps, shutdown threats, and continuing resolutions have made agencies more likely to update 3 instead of modernize. And I might add, after reading today’s testi- mony, that it may be—another factor may be a flawed philosophy of how to handle the whole data management system. GAO reports that while the total share of federal IT spending is increasing, it isn’t because we are investing in better and new technology; it is because the price of updating our existing systems is snowballing as our ancient software becomes increasingly outdated and hardware

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