Why Clinger-Cohen Really Failed

There’s been a bunch of discussion about how Clinger-Cohen has been an utter failure – that the rules are too prohibitive to be agile, that government is in the Stone Age when it comes to IT, etc. Allow me to offer a root cause: very few of our Executive Agencies have actually put the CIO where it belongs. What’s more, the CIO is a non-career appointee that may or may not have experience with Federal Acquisition Regulations and the patchwork of laws and regulations that govern Federal IT…which means that these folks just can’t give their leaders good advice on how to cut through that red tape effectively. Even worse, some of our largest Agencies bury the CIO so far down the chain of command, mixed with other administrative functions, that IT will never reach the level of being truly strategic. Sometimes it’s in the chain of real power (an Assistant Secretary) and sometimes it’s just an office that hangs there in the ether, with no authority (an Office of the CIO).

I’m not making this up. The information below is culled from the 2008 Plum Book. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs when 14 years after we said IT needs to be applied strategically to achieve our mission objectives, here we are with wildly different interpretations of how to achieve this. Any change to Clinger-Cohen absolutely has to untangle this, and it should look to our best agencies for the model that is appropriate.

• Agriculture – CIO is a non-career appointee reporting to the Secretary
• Commerce – If there is a CIO, the function is not apparent in the Secretary’s office. CIOs exist in subordinate administrations
• Defense – The CIO is an Assistant Secretary, a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. Secretary Gates has proposed to abolish this function. The military departments all have a CIO that reports directly to their Secretary. Navy has a unique situation where the Navy and Marine Corps each have a CIO reporting to their 4-star chains of command.
• Education – The CIO is a career appointee reporting to the Secretary.
• Energy – The CIO is career appointee reporting to the Secretary.
• Health & Human Services – The CIO is combined with the CFO under an Assistant Secretary. The Assistant Secretary is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The Deputy Assistant Secretary that serves as the CIO is a career appointee.
• Homeland Security – The CIO is part of the Under Secretary for Management, and is a non-career appointee. The Under Secretary is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. Other functions in this office are administration, finance, and human resources.
• Housing and Urban Development – The CIO is a career appointee reporting to the Secretary.
• Interior – The CIO is a career appointee reporting to the Secretary.
• Justice – The CIO is buried in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, under an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Justice Programs. The CIO is a career appointee, who reports to a presidential appointee that is confirmed by the Senate, who reports to a presidential appointee that is confirmed by the Senate.
• Labor – The CIO is combined with an Assistant Secretary for Administration & Management, who is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The Deputy position with actual CIO responsibilities is a career appointee.
• State – The CIO is combined with the Under Secretary for Management, who is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The CIO is a career appointee. The Under Secretary wears many hats, including finance, passport services, language services, visas, the Art in Embassies Program…
• Transportation – The CIO is a non-career appointee reporting to the Secretary.
• Treasury – The CIO is a Deputy Assistant Secretary, reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Management & CFO, who is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate. The CIO is a career appointee. Other functions in the Assistant Secretary’s office are finance, strategic planning, human capital, civil rights, and protocol.
• Veterans Affairs – The CIO is an Assistant Secretary, who is a presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate.

Anyone work at any of these places? What do you think?