Austin News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) have come together to introduce the Source Code Harmonization And Reuse in Information Technology (SHARE IT) Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to streamline government spending and reduce waste by requiring government agencies to share custom-developed source code with each other.

According to Sen. Cruz, "Each year, federal agencies spend billions for software that may be duplicative because it is not shared between agencies, despite existing infrastructure to do so. I am glad to join Chairman Peters in introducing this common-sense solution that will save taxpayer funds by holding federal agencies accountable for sharing the code they procure."

Chairman Peters also expressed his support for the act, stating that "Ensuring the federal government is sharing code across agencies will save taxpayers money, increase digital efficiency for government services, strengthen security, and enable innovation in software. This bipartisan bill is a critical step forward in advancing the digital capacity of the federal government and will benefit Americans as they access government services online."

Currently, the federal government spends approximately $12 billion annually on purchasing software, including custom-developed software for agencies. However, agencies do not typically share this custom-developed code with each other, even though there is an existing website created for agencies to do so. This inefficiency leads to duplicative government contracts and unnecessary spending on reproducing code that has already been procured.

The SHARE IT Act addresses this issue by requiring agencies to publicly list the custom code they make or buy and share it with the rest of the government. This not only promotes transparency but also eliminates the need for redundant contracts. The legislation does, however, include exceptions for code made for national security systems, classified code, or code that poses a risk to individual privacy if disclosed.

Importantly, the SHARE IT Act does not require any additional funding as agencies can utilize existing government infrastructure and open-source tools like Git, or commercial platforms like GitHub or Bitbucket to share code.

The introduction of the SHARE IT Act is a significant step towards improving government efficiency and reducing wasteful spending. By promoting the sharing of custom-developed source code, agencies can avoid duplicative contracts and streamline their operations. This ultimately benefits taxpayers and ensures that government services are delivered more effectively and securely.

To learn more about the SHARE IT Act, visit [LINK].

Read the full text of the SHARE IT Act [HERE](https://example.com).