18F and USDS: A Beautiful Bipartisan Oversight Opportunity
President Obama’s signature tech teams testify before Congress today. It’s a can’t-miss moment for bipartisan oversight that delivers smarter government for all Americans.
In a few hours, two of the Obama Administration’s signature information technology programs face Congressional scrutiny. As top officials from 18F and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) prepare to answer tough questions, I hope that they — and those on the dais probing for answers — seize the moment to buttress civic technology as a bridge to a bipartisan, better government future.
Now, getting grilled by the top taxpayer watchdog committee Congress is not always sunshine and daisies. I know because from 2009 to 2013, I watched hundreds of witnesses raise their right hands — some eagerly, most unhappily — before the House Oversight Committee, where I served as a digital communicator and technology staffer. It’s the same committee calling up 18F and USDS. Though I’ve never testified, it isn’t hard to imagine how it feels to be a sworn Executive Branch witness under the gun. But if I did, I would welcome the opportunity to be held accountable, to educate the attending press and staff, and to win over the hearts and minds of all the Members of Congress in attendance . They are, after all, the folks who pull the purse strings.
Good oversight strengthens our governing institutions — especially new programs that take radically different approaches, like 18F and USDS. And the best oversight results in broadly bipartisan, better government bills. In this case, two pieces of legislation are already in the works. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has introduced H.R.4897, the Information Technology Modernization Act, while Rep. Susan DelBene (D-WA) has introduced H. R. 5372, The United States Digital Service Act. It would be ideal for the findings of today's hearing to feed directly into improving those bills.
It may sound like a fever dream, but congressional investigations can uncover smarter ways to govern. It can result in fact-based legislative action. And it has to happen, if one wants to preserve any Executive Branch program, let alone grow and expand it. This kind of oversight is no hallucination: it happens often, even in our era of divided government. Though strong bipartisan oversight work rarely finds its way into the news, I have seen it happen each and every day under as politically diverse chairmen as a Henry Waxman, a Tom Davis, an Ed Towns, or a Darrell Issa.
My favorite example of how oversight should work — and perhaps the most instructive case study for Congress and the White House to revisit today — resulted in the most sweeping good government law since President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act fifty years ago: The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, otherwise known as The DATA Act. Vox.com, under the wry headline “Beating the Odds,” covered this rare investigative-cum-legislative victory, one that was celebrated at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
How did this miracle occur? The DATA Act flowed directly from House Oversight Committee investigations of President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus. Where was all the money going? How it was being spent? How were stimulus-funded programs performing against the administration’s stated goals? Under then-Chairman Darrell Issa [full disclosure: Issa co-founded The OpenGov Foundation with me], effective stimulus oversight surfaced the remarkable performance of Recovery.gov, the administration’s game-changing open-data-powered online stimulus transparency and accountability tool. Led by veteran government watchdog Earl Devaney and championed by Vice President Joe Biden, Recovery.gov radically enhanced both government’s ability to root out and actually prevent waste, fraud and abuse while upgrading the public’s ability to see where all their money went.
As the House Oversight Committee honed in on Recovery.gov, Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) reached across the aisle to write legislation that would make all federal spending — not just stimulus funds — as accurately accounted for and publicly reported as that $787 billion. After years of investigations, hearings and legislative legwork, President Obama signed The DATA Act into law on May 9, 2014.
At 9:30 AM, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Information Technology will gavel in a hearing titled: “18F AND U.S. DIGITAL SERVICE OVERSIGHT.” Chairman Will Hurd (R-TX) and Ranking Member Robin Kelly (D-IL) called this hearing to review the just-released results of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of the programs. According to NextGov’s Frank Konkel, the GAO investigation found that:
The Obama administration’s tech-consulting arm 18F is spending about $1 million more per month than it recoups in revenue and is projected to total net operating losses of approximately $33 million by the end of fiscal 2016, according to a draft Government Accountability Office audit that will be presented to Congress Friday.
While the full report isn’t out yet, it is a good sign that Congress is fulfilling its critical constitutional responsibility to rigorously examine Executive Branch spending and performance. That is oversight, a core function of every legislative branch in the world. The other side of oversight, the one that garners few headlines and even less public interest, is what I hope we see today.
In our system of government, oversight means far more than exposing malfeasance. It is a process of learning, of gathering the facts through investigations and public hearings, publishing lessons-learned, and enacting those lessons through legislation. That is how oversight is supposed to work, and it cannot stop when the gavel drops. Good oversight means delivering more efficient, effective and accountable government that is constantly serving better, while spending less hard-earned taxpayer money. Those are goals all Member of Congress, all 18F and USDS staff, and all taxpayers should support.
At its best and most beneficial, Congressional oversight holds up and learns from what works and what doesn’t. It would be wonderful to hear Members and witnesses during the hearing give equal time to both areas in need of improvement, and to the solid, if nascent, successes of 18F and USDS, as the GAO report does. According to NextGov:
[T]he audit also reveals agencies that have hired 18F to provide products and services are generally satisfied with the team’s work…Of 26 customers surveyed by GAO, 23 were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘moderately satisfied’ with 18F’s work. Only three were ‘moderately dissatisfied.’ 18F served those agencies through five business units: Custom partner solutions, products and platforms, transformation services, acquisition services and training.
18F and USDS have an 88% customer satisfaction rate. How can the rest of the federal government learn from that? Good oversight can and must find out.
I don’t know what will happen today, though I guarantee it won’t land on Fox News or MSNBC. But people who care about civic technology, and how it can strengthen government and save taxpayer money, will be watching closely. Let’s show them the good, bipartisan government reform that can flow from good, bipartisan oversight.
