Inside Cybersecurity, February 4, 2021

By Sara Friedman

Major trade groups representing the technology and other sectors are urging lawmakers to preserve $9 billion in proposed funding for IT modernization in the COVID-19 package now beginning to work its way through Congress.

“Funding and some tweaking on how the program works will make it more effective,” BSA’s Craig Albright told Inside Cybersecurity. “It is not surprising that it takes a couple of years or longer to get a program fine tuned that has the kind of impact that this fund can have.”

Albright said there is bipartisan support to modernize IT systems in the next stage of COVID relief legislation, referencing a $2 billion proposal for updating unemployment insurance systems that states use to administer benefits in a GOP plan put out by a group of senators on Sunday.

“Modernizing IT is already showing up in multiple proposals for the next COVID response legislation so there is a lot of interest among industry in trying to get support for modernizing IT in this next bill,” Albright said.

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Original Posting: https://insidecybersecurity.com/daily-news/tech-leads-broad-industry-coalition-urging-inclusion-it-upgrade-funds-covid-relief