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House advances bill to increase transparency for Agency of Digital Services projects
Summary
A House committee bill would require broader reporting and public disclosure of state IT projects managed by the Agency of Digital Services, including original cost and completion estimates; the measure was ordered to third reading after a unanimous committee vote.
The Vermont House on March 13 advanced House Bill 458, a committee bill to expand reporting requirements for the Agency of Digital Services (ADS), after a committee presentation by Representative Campbell of St. Johnsbury.
The bill would require ADS to provide the House and Senate committees of jurisdiction and the public with more detailed, standardized information about projects managed by ADS's Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO). That includes project scope, current and original budgets, current and original completion dates, status changes over time, indicators of whether projects are on budget and on time, and project closure details. The bill also would require ADS to disclose any uses of the chief information officer's authority to waive independent expert reviews.
Representative Campbell, reporting for the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure, said the changes respond to concerns about limited legislative visibility into large state IT efforts. He noted that projects underway across the executive branch have an estimated combined lifetime cost of about $762,000,000 and that ADS's roughly $140,000,000 annual budget is largely funded by payments from partner agencies rather than direct appropriation.
"The intent of the bill is to provide the general assembly with and the public with more transparency about the scope, budget, and overall status of certain technology projects managed by ADS," Campbell said while walking members through the bill's statutory changes to 3 V.S.A. § 3303 and the new dashboard and inventory requirements.
The measure replaces the prior $500,000 threshold for reporting with a test based on whether a project is managed by the EPMO, and it codifies that the publicly available dashboard show the original implementation-phase cost and completion date alongside current estimates. The committee also added a requirement that partner agency staffing costs be included in records when available.
The committee reported unanimous support for the bill (9–0) and thanked ADS staff, the deputy state auditor, the joint fiscal office consultant and legislative counsel for their participation in drafting the measure. On the House floor, members ordered third reading after a voice vote.
The bill includes no appropriation and is scheduled to take effect July 1, 2025, as printed in the committee report.
Third reading was ordered; further floor action may follow.
