[1st-mile-nm] GAO report: Feds spend billions to run ancient technology

[Richard Lowenberg]

Bridging the 'digital divide' is an increasingly expensive and 
wide-spread proposition, impacting top-down as well as bottom-up.   I'd 
be interested in seeing a report on the state of government agencies' 
ISP contracted connectivity across the U.S.
RL

----------

Gov't report: Feds spend billions to run ancient technology

Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press
Wednesday, May 25, 2016

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Gov-t-report-Feds-spend-billions-to-run-ancient-7943999.php

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is spending about three-fourths of its 
technology budget maintaining aging computer systems, including 
platforms more than 50 years old in vital areas from nuclear weapons to 
Social Security. One still uses floppy disks.

In a report to be released Wednesday, nonpartisan congressional 
investigators say the increasing cost of maintaining museum-ready 
equipment devours money better spent on modernization.
Despite a White House push to replace aging workhorse systems, the 
budget for modernization has fallen, and will be $7 billion less in 2017 
than in 2010, said the Government Accountability Office. The report was 
provided to The Associated Press ahead of a House oversight committee 
hearing.

GAO said it found problems across the government, not just in a few 
agencies. Among those highlighted in the report:

— The Defense Department's Strategic Automated Command and Control 
System, which is used to send and receive emergency action messages to 
U.S. nuclear forces. The system is running on a 1970s IBM computing 
platform, and still uses 8-inch floppy disks to store data. "Replacement 
parts for the system are difficult to find because they are now 
obsolete," GAO said. The Pentagon is initiating a full replacement and 
says the floppy disks should be gone by the end of next year. The entire 
upgrade will take longer.

— Treasury's individual and business master files, the authoritative 
data sources for taxpayer information. The systems are about 56 years 
old, and use an outdated computer language that is difficult to write 
and maintain. Treasury plans to replace the systems, but has no firm 
dates.

— Social Security systems that are used to determine eligibility and 
estimate benefits, about 31 years old. Some use a programming language 
called COBOL, dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s. "Most of the 
employees who developed these systems are ready to retire and the agency 
will lose their collective knowledge," the report said. "Training new 
employees to maintain the older systems takes a lot of time." Social 
Security has no plans to replace the entire system, but is eliminating 
and upgrading older and costlier components. It is also rehiring 
retirees who know the technology.

— Medicare's Appeals System, which is only 11 years old, but facing 
challenges keeping up with a growing number of appeals, as well as 
questions from congressional offices following up on constituent 
concerns. The report says the agency has general plans to keep updating 
the system, depending on the availability of funds.

— The Transportation Department's Hazardous Materials Information 
System, used to track incidents and keep information relied on by 
regulators. The system is about 41 years old, and some of its software 
is no longer supported by vendors, which can create security risks. The 
department plans to complete its modernization program in 2018.

GAO estimates that the government spent at least $80 billion on 
information technology, or IT, in 2015. However, the total could be 
significantly higher. Not counted in the report are certain Pentagon 
systems, as well as those run by independent agencies, among them the 
CIA. Major systems are known as "IT investments" in government jargon.

"Legacy federal IT investments are becoming obsolete," GAO concluded. 
"The federal government runs the risk of continuing to maintain 
investments that have outlived their effectiveness and are consuming 
resources that outweigh their benefits."

The report also profiled aging systems operated by the departments of 
Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and 
Veterans Affairs.

The White House has been nudging agencies to identify obsolete systems 
and start replacing them, but GAO said that clearer, more specific goals 
and timetables are needed. A starting point could be recent legislation 
supported by the White House to create a revolving fund of $3 billion 
for replacing or upgrading older technology. It seems certain that 
President Barack Obama's successor will have to grapple with the issue.

"The federal government is years and in some cases decades behind the 
private sector," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House 
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement. 
"Taxpayers deserve a government that leverages technology to serve them, 
rather than one that deploys insecure, decades-old technology that 
places their sensitive and personal information at risk."

Here’s the link to today’s GAO report:
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-696T


---------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
---------------------------------------------------------------