U.S. House passes Digital Tech Corps bill

From...

By Brian Sullivan

(IDG) -- A bill that would let IT workers from the private sector tackle government projects and government IT workers take on jobs in the private sector passed the House of Representatives in a voice vote Wednesday.

The Digital Tech Corps bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Republican-Virginia), cleared the house after an amendment by Rep. Henry Waxman (Democrat-California) was defeated 219 to 204. Supporters of the bill say Waxman's amendment, which prohibited private-sector workers from accessing government projects that could have revealed competitors' trade secrets, would have killed the bill.

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Davis' spokesman, David Marin, said the bill in its original form takes care of the trade secret issue. He said that a private-sector worker who reveals trade secrets he might have learned while working on a government project would face criminal prosecution.

"The amendment would have rendered their time in the program meaningless," Marin said.

The goal of the bill is to build up the expertise of government IT workers and to give private-sector workers an opportunity to volunteer on government projects. Davis has said that the federal government faces a looming shortage of qualified IT workers and that by 2006 about half of the government's 60,000 IT employees will be eligible to retire.

"The legislation would permit a two-way transfer of talent that will reap benefits for the American people, as our government gets an infusion of IT talent to kick-start e-government initiatives ..." Davis said in a statement released Wednesday.

Now that the bill has cleared the House, it must also get past the Senate. The Senate version of the bill, filed by Sen. George V. Voinovich (Republican-Ohio), has yet to be taken up. Marin said he isn't sure when that will happen.