House, Senate Pass E-Government Act

On November 15, the House and Senate unanimously passed a modified version of the E-Government Act, which President Bush is expected to sign. While the bill remained mostly intact as it moved through the House and Senate, there were a few significant changes from the original Senate version, which the Senate passed on June 27:
  • The Office of E-Government within the Office of Management and Budget will be run by an administrator appointed by the president, but will not require Senate confirmation, as in the original Senate version of the bill. (Title I)
  • The new bill sets up an "exchange program" between public and private sector employees who specialize in information technology. Under this program, an employee of a federal agency may temporarily -- from 3 months up to a year -- work for a private sector organization, without losing his/her position at the agency; and a private sector employee may work temporarily at an agency. (Title II, Sec. 209)
  • The modified bill adds language from the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), which is the House version of the Senate's Government Information Security Reform Act (GISRA). (The same language was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2001, but is set to expire in 2002) The new FIMSA language adds several requirements to the bill, including the designation of a senior agency information security officer in charge of overall information security. Each agency must also develop and implement an agency-wide information security program. (Title III)
  • Title V of the bill is entirely new. The "Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act" protects the confidentiality of statistical information collected from the public by the government.
For a full summary of the original Senate version, click here.
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