news

Of the Committee’s many responsibilities, one of our most critical is overseeing and examining the Small Business Administration. 

As the only federal agency charged specifically with helping small businesses grow and succeed, all of the SBA’s functions should strengthen and preserve the entrepreneurial foundation of our economy.  

For small businesses to fully reap the benefits of SBA’s programs, it is important for the agency to operate efficiently and effectively.  In particular, the Office of the Chief Information Officer plays a critical role in promoting information technology to support and enhance business decisions and agency operations. 

Despite its critical role, SBA has neglected to prioritize this office.  This is evidenced by high turnover and an absence of a CIO for over a year. Such disregard not only wastes taxpayer dollars, it weakens IT security – putting the government and small firms at risk. 

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities are always of tremendous concern – but are especially grave in light of events last year. Our intelligence community has concluded that Russia used cyber-attacks in an attempt to influence last year’s Presidential and Congressional elections.  We can expect that Russia’s intelligence services and other bad actors will continue seeking weaknesses in our IT security systems – for political gain and personal profit.  

As stories unfold now almost daily about Russia’s digital meddling in our democratic process, we should expect every federal agency to make cyber security a top priority – so it is disconcerting that the OCIO has had such severe problems for so long.  

There have been numerous GAO and IG reviews of SBA’s IT operations highlighting these deficiencies.  In its 2015 review, GAO found that SBA had not prioritized long-term IT organizational transformation and had not conducted regular reviews of its IT investments to ensure they continue meeting agency needs. 

Additionally, the IG found that overseeing and addressing IT investments and security risks was one of the agency’s most serious management challenges for this fiscal year. Though reports indicate that some progress has been made in implementing recommendations from these evaluations, over 30 remain outstanding. This is unacceptable. 

As has been noted, Ms. Roat recently took the reigns as CIO and it is my hope that she will make oversight of the OCIO a priority. I look forward to working together to ensure SBA deploys adequate steps to strengthen IT security and management of the OCIO.

Effective management of the agency’s IT systems helps ensure small businesses receive assistance they need – to grow and create jobs. Equally important, bolstering the agency’s cybersecurity will ensure government and small businesses’ sensitive data is safeguarded from those who have already conducted cyberattacks on our nation – and others who may have similar plans. 

I look forward to the witness’ testimony on how these challenges are being tackled.