Senators try again to advance software license bill
Summary
“By requiring federal agencies to better track their software purchases, this commonsense, bipartisan bill will reduce waste, save taxpayer dollars, strengthen cybersecurity and modernize government operations to help ensure the federal government can more effectively serve taxpayers,” Peters said in a statement. The legislaiton builds on the 2016 Megabyte Act — which required agencies to maintain accurate software inventories to reduce costs, redundancies and cybersecurity risk — by requiring agencies to conduct an independent, comprehensive assessment of their software licensing practices. Those assessments would be used by Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration to promote more oversight of software acquisition contracts with an eye towards cost savings. The original legislation proposed sharing software assessments with agency inspectors general, who would then compile reports on software expenditures, efficiencies and redundancies and offer recommendations on enterprisewide licensing adoption. Cassidy said in a statement that it will help agencies have more visibility into the software licenses they use and how to utilize them more efficiently.