The crown jewel of the Modernizing Government Technology Act isn’t the Technology Modernization Fund. If you’ve paid attention to federal technology over the last 20 years, Congress rarely throws much support behind what appropriators like to call “slush” funds.
Instead, as Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) will tell you, the best thing about the MGT Act is the ability of agencies to retain or save money and apply it to IT modernization programs through working capital funds.
But what Hurd and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the two main authors of the bill, either over looked or didn’t quite grasp is how difficult it would be for agencies to establish these working capital funds.