IT Industry Council

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday in an effort to build institutional capabilities to drive IT modernization.

Michael Sullivan, GAO’s director for defense weapons system acquisitions, and Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president of the IT Industry Council, are guests on this week’s Pentagon Solutions.

The Pentagon is taking a lowest price, technically acceptable approach to the $17 billion, multiple-award contract known as Encore 3. Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president of the IT Industry Council, tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin contractors say that’s the wrong approach.

In a repeat performance from last year, the House has included a major IT procurement reform plan as part of the 2015 Defense Authorization bill. Last year it got removed in conference. But this year a similar bill is rattling around the Senate. Plus, there have been some changes in the content of the House version. Trey Hodgkins is senior vice president for the public sector at the Information Technology Industry Council. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss the significant changes made in this year’s version of FITARA.

A judge rules that the $5 million complaint can move into the discovery phase. ITI Council returns more than 60,000 pages of documents to TechAmerica.

The newest industry technology association is recruiting new members and contributing to the discussion to improve federal IT acquisition. But in the short term, ITAPS faces a court decision on Feb. 7 whether the lawsuit filed by TechAmerica against it and three employees goes forward.

The trade association offers more details about its claims against three former senior officials who left to join the IT Industrial Council. TechAmerica says the three officials downloaded a “truckload” of proprietary information about membership dues and other parts of the business, which will cause “irreparable injury” to the association.

The IT Industry Council asked the DC Superior Court to dismiss charges filed by TechAmerica against the trade organization and three employees. ITI’s lawyer said TechAmerica’s allegations lack evidence and do not meet the standards of law. TechAmerica pushes back against ITI’s request for dismissal saying each of the allegations can be backed up by facts.

Four senior TechAmerica officials, Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president global public sector; Erica McCann, manager of procurement policy; Carol Henton, vice president of state and local government division; and Pam Walker, senior director for homeland security; took similar roles with ITI’s new IT Alliance for Public Sector organization, which will focus on technology and acquisition issues.

A coalition of IT industry associations are calling for a consistent set of global cybersecurity policies.