Today’s meeting of the White House Office of American Innovation is being attended by 18 private sector technology experts, including the CEOs of some of the most innovative and successful companies in U.S. history. Their expertise is welcome and necessary.
Setting the Internet Free
On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted by a 2-1 margin to open a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Restoring Internet Freedom (WC Docket 17-108). The NPRM proposes to restore the internet to a Title I information services classification, a status that was stripped away by the February 26, 2015 Open Internet Order (OIO), under which former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, following direct orders from President Obama, reclassified the internet as a Title II rotary dial telephone service.
Another Tool to Modernize Federal IT
The federal government spends more than $80 billion annually on information technology (IT), with more than 75 percent of this spending used on operations and maintenance of existing legacy IT systems. On May 17, 2017, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2227, the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 (MGT Act).
NYT Is Completely Wrong on Internet Freedom
The New York Times’ April 30 editorial on the effort by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to restore internet freedom gets everything wrong, particularly the claim that giving something for free as an inducement to sell services is somehow bad for consumers and small businesses.
Free File Should Remain Free
Members of Congress and big-government advocates who believe bureaucrats know best just cannot tolerate private sector success. For example, the well-established and popular Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free File program, which provides taxpayers that make under $64,000 annually with an option of 12 tax preparation companies to file their taxes at no cost, is under attack.
Wasteful IRS Program Fails to Prevent Tax Fraud
The least favorite government agency during the month of April is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (although that may be true every month of the year). During the 2015 tax season, only 38 percent of phone calls were answered, as the IRS hung up on more than 30 million taxpayers. The tax code and tax regulations combined are more than 70,000 pages long. Annual compliance with IRS paperwork takes 8.9 billion hours and costs the economy $409 billion in lost productivity.
FedRAMP Gets a ReVAMP
The need to modernize federal information technology (IT) is being taken seriously by the Trump administration. One of the President’s early White House appointments was for Reed Cordish to become Assistant to the President for Intragovernmental and Technology Initiatives. He has also created the White House Office of Innovation, headed by Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, and has met with more than 100 business leaders and government officials to discuss issues related to technology.
Restoring State Authority for Lifeline
In another sign of better times for taxpayers and consumers at the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Ajit Pai is taking steps to address jurisdictional problems created by his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, regarding the Lifeline program. Citizens Against Government Waste has long reported on problems with the program, which is supposed to provide low-income households with […]
The Sky Is Clearing, Not Falling, on Internet Privacy
The hysteria and hyperbole about online privacy needs to stop following House passage of S. J. Res. 34, which invoked the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind the Federal Communications Commission’s Privacy Order. The legislation simply begins to restore the status quo for privacy rules that had been in place for decades prior to the […]
The Risky Business of Federal IT
Information technology (IT) has consistently been a top priority for Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) since it was founded in 1984 following the release of the Grace Commission report. The commission found that the federal government’s computer systems were outdated and incompatible, and much more needed to be done to upgrade and improve the efficiency of federal IT.