House subcommittee hears sharply divided views on federal IT modernization and USDS changes

The House Oversight and Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation met to review federal IT modernization efforts and the administration's reorganization of the U.S. Digital Service into an entity repeatedly called DOGE during the hearing. Chairwoman Mace opened the panel by saying an "important role of this subcommittee is to ensure proper management of federal technology," and urged discussion of what has worked and what still needs fixing.

Why it matters: Modernizing federal IT affects how benefits, national security and day-to-day government services are delivered and secured. Witnesses and members agreed on the need for sustained funding and technical expertise, but testimony diverged sharply over whether recent agency reorganizations and staffing changes have advanced modernization or damaged critical systems and data protections.

The witnesses included three former federal CIO leaders and a former agency technologist. Maria Roat, identified at the hearing as a former U.S. deputy federal chief information officer, described modernization as an enterprise problem that requires multi-year funding, mission alignment, and portfolio governance. Margie Graves, former deputy federal CIO, told the panel the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) has produced concrete upgrades across agencies and urged a portfolio approach that favors shared services and measurable outcomes. Suzette Kent, former federal chief information officer, urged making the GAO's list of most-critical legacy systems a top priority: "plan it, fund it, and measure that it gets done," she said.

Countering those views, Erie Meyer, identified in her testimony as a former chief technologist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, sharply criticized DOGE's approach. Meyer testified that DOGE "didn't modernize anything. Instead, they broke the consumer complaint system that the CFPB runs," and asserted that at least "75 families facing imminent foreclosure" and "more than 16,000 consumer complaints were stuck in the system with no path forward." Meyer also said some DOGE staff sought broad access to confidential investigatory data and questioned whether proper vetting and oversight have been applied to tools being used to analyze sensitive data. "This is not modernization. It's chaos, and it's chaos with a human cost," Meyer said.

Members of the subcommittee pressed witnesses on concrete barriers to progress. Witnesses repeatedly pointed to three recurring obstacles: lack of sustained senior executive sponsorship, the need for predictable multi-year funding (such as TMF), and gaps in procurement and the federal technical workforce. Ranking Member Brown emphasized bipartisan agreement on the need for talent and oversight, noting concern about "funding cuts and layoffs at agencies like CISA, NIST, and DHS" and telling the panel Congress must remain vigilant about data protections.

Specific examples and figures cited during testimony included: the federal government spends "more than $100,000,000,000 annually on IT systems," with "almost 80%" of that going to operation and maintenance; a GAO-derived GAO list of most-critical legacy systems includes a COBOL-based student aid processing system cited as processing about "20,000,000 federal student financial aid applications annually"; HUD's TMF-backed refactoring effort previously cost "over $5,000,000" and was used to illustrate progress; and a GAO-reported $31,400,000,000 in savings attributable to prior implementation efforts was read into the record.

Witnesses recommended steps for improvement: expand and reauthorize the TMF (Chairwoman Mace said she reintroduced the Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act), adopt portfolio governance to identify cross-agency shared solutions, prioritize a small set of high-value legacy systems for expedited work, and invest in upskilling the federal workforce. Multiple witnesses singled out 18F and interagency technical teams as sources of rapid, lower-cost technical capability; several panelists said losing those teams undermines capacity to cancel underperforming contracts and deliver faster results.

On data protection and AI, members and witnesses warned against centralizing access to sensitive records without clear legal authority, oversight, and security plans. Representative Ansari voiced concerns that, according to whistleblower accounts presented to the committee, DOGE is "combining sensitive legally protected information from SSA, the IRS, HHS, and other agencies into a singular unauthorized mega database," a step Ansari said would violate the Privacy Act. Erie Meyer and other witnesses cautioned that unvetted deployment of AI-powered tools and replacing experienced staff with automated systems could produce "hallucinations" and service failures for seniors, veterans, and people reporting fraud.

The hearing produced no committee votes. Members and witnesses left the record with a mix of policy recommendations and oversight requests: several members urged the committee to gather additional documents and testimony from agencies and contractors, and the chair announced members will have five legislative days to submit materials and written questions for the witnesses.

The subcommittee public record will include the witnesses' written statements and any materials provided in response to follow-up questions.