The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[Biowatch]

US government computers include “legacy” dinosaurs. And a rat’s maze of different systems that are hard to coordinate. Plus, any decent programmer can make a lot more money in the private sector than as a government employee. It can be difficult to find young programmers who even know how to run the old systems.

Look at how hard it was to sign up for healthcare online when they first announced “Obamacare.” Look at the nightmare applying for college financial aid became when they put it online. By all reports, the IRS rollout of filing taxes online has gone smoothly, but they’ve started very slowly and still warn you to be careful about spam, scams, and phishing.

From a 2021 article:

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-524t

The U.S. government plans to spend over $100 billion this fiscal year on information technology. Most of that will be used to operate and maintain existing systems, including aging (also called "legacy") systems. These systems can be more costly to maintain and vulnerable to hackers.

This testimony discusses our work in this area. We analyzed 65 federal legacy systems and identified the 10 most critical at 10 agencies, including the Departments of Defense and the Treasury. The systems were 8 to 51 years old. Three agencies had no documented plans to modernize. Two had plans that included key practices for success.

… In June 2019, GAO identified 10 critical federal information technology (IT) legacy systems that were most in need of modernization. These legacy systems provided vital support to agencies' missions. According to the agencies, these legacy systems ranged from about 8 to 51 years old and, collectively, cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain. Several of the systems used older languages, such as Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL). GAO has previously reported that reliance on such languages has risks, such as a rise in procurement and operating costs, and a decrease in the availability of individuals with the proper skill sets. Further, several of the legacy systems were operating with known security vulnerabilities and unsupported hardware and software.

Of the 10 agencies responsible for these legacy systems, GAO reported in June 2019 that seven agencies (the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, the Interior, the Treasury; as well as the Office of Personnel Management; Small Business Administration; and Social Security Administration) had documented plans for modernizing the systems (see table). Of the seven agencies with plans, only the Departments of the Interior's and Defense's modernization plans included all of the key elements identified in best practices (milestones, a description of the work necessary to complete the modernization, and a plan for the disposition of the legacy system). The other five agencies lacked complete modernization plans. The Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Transportation did not have documented modernization plans.