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In Case You Missed It – A new analysis found that legislation led by U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08), which was signed into law in 2016, has saved the federal government more than $450 million in taxpayer dollars since its enactment.

The bipartisan Megabyte Act of 2016, sponsored by Cartwright in the House and U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) in the Senate, requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and chief information officers of federal agencies to keep inventories of software licenses, train their IT management workforce on how to manage the licenses, and use that information to manage the agency’s software licenses in accordance with agency policy.

In a recent report, Federal News Network wrote that the Megabyte Act “may just be the most successful federal management bill in the last two-plus decades:"

Federal News Network: New data proves some federal management laws do work (September 14, 2020)

“Here’s a thought to ponder: Has there ever been a federal management law that has been as successful as the MEGABYTE Act of 2016?

Stop for a moment and think back over the last, say 20 or 25 years.

             I’ll wait …

While you are going through the old Rolodex of laws whether it was the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) or the Services Acquisition Reform Act (SARA) or the E-Government Act or even go back to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, have agencies successfully implemented any of these at scale and saw real change as intended by Congress?

New data from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee combined with the 10^th Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard demonstrates that the Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act (MEGABYTE Act) may just be the most successful federal management bill in the last two-plus decades.

The committee found 13 agencies saved or avoided spending more than $450 million between fiscal 2017 and 2019. The Department of Health and Human Services accounted for $145 million of that savings or avoidance, while the Social Security Administration achieved $118 million in savings or avoidance during that two-year time span.”

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Read the full article here.

“Democrats and Republicans both agree that government works better when it works smarter, and that was the whole idea behind the Megabyte Act,” Cartwright said. “By improving IT management across our federal agencies, this successful law is helping improve government service and saving millions of taxpayer dollars in the process. I’m proud to see that the Megabyte Act is working as intended.”