1.4

THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE OVERSIGHT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PROGRAM PLAN

At its November 15, 1995 meeting, the Committee on House Oversight adopted the House Information Systems Program Plan presented by its Computer and Information Services Working Group. The Plan and an accompanying resolution provides H.I.R. the direction and a detailed blueprint for translating the Speaker's CyberCongress vision into a reality. The H.I.R. plan and this budget request are in specific response to the Committee's plan.

The plan mandates:

:

A new Information Research facility for the House based on the World Wide Web
paradigm.

Replacement of the MicroMin, MIN and ISIS systems.

H.I.R. to migrate its existing mainframe-based systems to systems that support the
network-centric strategy.

The adoption of a House-wide Messaging infrastructure establishing an Internet-like
network linking House offices in Washington and districts.

Close cooperation with and the elimination of unnecessary duplication of effort among
the computer support organizations of the House, the Senate and the Library.
That the House adopt a modern Data and Document Preparation and Management System
for the creation, storage, retrieval and printing of House documents.

The retirement of small office servers and the use of shared high-performance servers.

1.5

COMPLYING WITH AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS

The 1995 Price Waterhouse Audit made important recommendations regarding the strategy, development, management and security of House information and communications systems. The inception of H.I.R. in July and subsequent restructuring plans and actions address audit issues dealing with strategy, development and management. They are being handled by the management and personnel of H.I.R. in cooperation with the CAO organization and other entities within the House.

The three major security recommendation areas are:

1. Member Computer Security Systems weaknesses - 8 recommendations

2. Internet Security Weaknesses - 10 recommendations

3. House Computer Systems Vulnerability to Unauthorized Access, Modification and
Destruction

a) Establish a comprehensive data security program - 8 recommendations
b) Disaster Recovery Improvements including all offices, facilities, and

communications systems - 4 recommendations

c) Security Controls over User Access to System Resources - 7 recommendations

The implementation of these 37 recommendations is critical to the success of the CyberCongress plan. Nothing is more important to the users of House systems than the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the information, particularly with a strategy that will see usage and dependence on the systems increase dramatically in the foreseeable future. The credibility of the strategy rests with the confidence that the users will develop regarding the privacy of their systems, information and communications.

Although delayed initially, H.I.R.'s new Manager of Security assumed his new position in mid February. He will lead the development of the new policies and provide the direction on the response to the recommendations.

The H.L.R. Director's Office has four full-time authorized personnel plus each H.I.R. Group has staff assigned part-time to security. There will be a continuing need for contract help to assist H.LR. in the implementation of the new security policies and the required and continuing audits. The contract service request in this appropriation is $100,000.

An equally important area is back-up and recovery which has been expanded beyond the H.I.R. mainframe system to include communications as well as distributed systems in Member, committee and other House offices. H.I.R. management and professionals are currently developing the new plan with a recommendation expected by March 31, 1996. This appropriation request includes an additional $120,000 for current Enterprise Computing and new distributed systems needs and $700, 000 for the new communications systems plan.

Over the years, H.I.R. has implemented and is now supporting hundreds of systems, databases, and services that are essential to the operation of House offices today. These range from legislative process systems to nationwide communication networks to accounting systems to label printing and Electronic Mail.

While H.I.R. is moving forward to meet the Speaker's vision, the mandates of the Committee on House Oversight and the recommendations from the House audit, it must, at the same time, provide reliable and timely support for its existing commitments. At times, the question is asked, "What does the House receive in return for the funds that are appropriated to H.I.R. and 270 FTEs?" In addition to the new services previously addressed, the answer to that question is: