S. 4908 — what changed
Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act
From Introduced in Senate to Reported in Senate. 3 sections amended between Introduced in Senate and Reported in Senate.
Sec. 3 Software entitlement and inventory integrity
In general— As soon as practicable, and not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Officer of each agency, in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Procurement Officer, and General Counsel of the agency, or the equivalent officials of the agency, shall complete a comprehensive assessment of the software entitlements and software inventories of the agency, which shall include—
the current software inventory of the agency, including software entitlements, contracts and other agreements or arrangements of the agency, and a list of the largest software entitlements of the agency separated by vendor;
a comprehensive, detailed accounting of—
any software deployed for the agency as of the date of the comprehensive assessment, including, to the extent identifiable, the contracts and other agreements or arrangements that the agency uses to acquire, deploy, or use such software;
information and data on software entitlements—
for which the agency pays;
that are not deployed or in use by the agency; and
that are billed to the agency under any contract or business arrangement that creates redundancy in the deployment or use by the agency; and
the extent—
to which any software paid for, in use, or deployed throughout the agency is interoperable; and
of the efforts of the agency to improve interoperability of software assets throughout the agency enterprise;
a categorization of software licenses of the agency by costs and volume;
a list of any provisions in the software licenses of the agency that may restrict how the software can be deployed or accessed, either on desktop or server hardware or through a cloud service provider; and
an analysis addressing—
the accuracy and completeness of the software inventory and software entitlements of the agency before and after the comprehensive assessment;
management by the agency of and compliance by the agency with all contracts or other agreements or arrangements that include or implicate software licensing or software management within the agency;
the extent to which the agency accurately captures the total costs of enterprise licenses agreements and related costs; and
compliance with software license management policies of the agency.
Contract support—
Authority— The head of an agency may enter into 1 or more contracts to support the requirements of subsection (a).
No conflict of interest— Contracts under paragraph (1) shall not include contractors with organization conflicts of interest.
Operational independence— Over the course of a comprehensive assessment, contractors hired pursuant to paragraph (1) shall maintain operational independence from the integration, management, and operations of the software inventory and software entitlements of the agency.
Submission— On the date on which the Chief Information Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer, and General Counsel of an agency, or the equivalent officials of the agency, complete the comprehensive assessment, and not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief Information Officer shall submit the comprehensive assessment to—
the head of the agency;
the Director;
the Administrator;
the Comptroller General of the United States;
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and
the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives.
changed
Consultation— In order to ensure the utility and standardization of the comprehensive assessment of each agency, including to support the development of each plan and the governmentwide Government-wide strategy described in section 5, the Director, in consultation with the Administrator, may share information, best practices, and recommendations relating to the activities performed in the course of a comprehensive assessment of an agency.
Sec. 5 Government-wide strategy
In general— Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director, in consultation with the Administrator and the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives a strategy that includes—
changed
proposals to support the adoption of governmentwide Government-wide enterprise licenses on the most widely used and most costly software entitlements identified through the comprehensive assessment and plans, including, where appropriate, a cost-benefit analysis;
opportunities to leverage Government procurement policies and practices to increase interoperability of software entitlements acquired and deployed to reduce costs and improve performance;
the incorporation of data on spending by agencies on, the performance of, and management by agencies of software entitlements as part of the information required under section 11302(c)(3)(B) of title 40, United States Code;
where applicable, directions to agencies to transition to open-source software to obtain cost savings and performance improvement; and
any other information or data collected or analyzed by the Director.
Budget Submission—
First budget— With respect to the first budget of the President submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, on or after the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall ensure that the strategy required under subsection (a) of this section and the plan of each agency are included in the budget justification materials of each agency submitted in conjunction with that budget.
Subsequent 5 budgets— With respect to the first 5 budgets of the President submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, after the budget described in paragraph (1), the Director shall—
designate performance metrics for agencies for common software licensing, management, and cost criteria; and
ensure that the progress of each agency toward the performance metrics is included in the budget justification materials of the agency submitted in conjunction with that budget.
Sec. 6 GAO report
changed
Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives a report on governmentwide Government-wide trends, comparisons among agencies, and other analyses of plans and the strategy required under section 5(a) by the Comptroller General of the United States.