Chairman Yarmuth: “Americans can’t afford to wait for decades-old IT systems to reboot”

Washington, D.C.— Yesterday, the House Budget Committee released a report on the need to modernize information technology (IT) tools and infrastructure at all levels of government in order to deliver critical COVID-19 relief. The report discusses the necessity of updating our nation’s IT systems and how long-term underinvestment in new technologies and solutions have left critical programs, services, and infrastructure vulnerable to public health emergencies, economic shocks, natural disasters, and security threats.

“When COVID cost Americans their jobs and they needed relief fast, our nation’s reliance on outdated IT and cumbersome systems left hundreds of thousands of workers in limbo, forcing them to go weeks without the vital unemployment insurance they needed to buy food, pay their bills, and more,” said House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth. “In order to provide critical aid immediately, we must pair technology investments with proactive policy implementation. Americans cannot afford to wait for decades-old IT systems to reboot when unemployment lines are wrapping around the block.”

A PDF of the report can be found here.

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