HR6654-119

What This Bill Does

The VAMOSA Act adds a new section 534 to title 38 requiring VA-wide software asset management. The VA Secretary must ensure coordination between the Chief Information Officer and other appropriate officials to establish and implement a comprehensive policy for managing software assets. At minimum, the policy must maintain a comprehensive inventory, assess interoperability and license restrictions, identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse by comparing inventory to purchase, subscription, billing, and contract records, coordinate significant software acquisitions, adopt cost-effective licensing strategies such as enterprise agreements, and measure and enforce license-term compliance. The CIO, CFO, and other officials must review and update the policy at least every three years. Employees responsible for acquiring, managing, or implementing software assets must receive annual training on contract restrictions, commercial versus custom software, and cost models. The work must use existing personnel, systems, and funds, with no new program or office. VA must include policy updates and estimated savings in the annual report to Congress, and the authority sunsets five years after enactment.

Who Benefits and How

VA information technology programs benefit from a comprehensive software inventory and better control over subscriptions, licenses, and usage entitlements. VA procurement officials benefit from training on license restrictions, cost models, enterprise agreements, and custom software decisions. Veterans may benefit indirectly if VA reduces waste and redirects resources toward mission needs. Congress benefits from annual reporting on policy updates and estimated cost savings. Taxpayers benefit if over-procurement and underused licenses are reduced.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The VA Secretary, Chief Information Officer, Chief Financial Officer, procurement staff, and software managers must build and maintain the inventory, compare records, review the policy every three years, train employees annually, enforce license terms, and report savings. VA employees responsible for software acquisition must complete annual training. Software vendors may face tougher negotiation over restrictions, deployment, data access, and transferability. VA must implement the requirements without new appropriations, personnel, systems, or a new office.

Key Provisions

• Requires VA to establish a department-wide software asset management policy.
• Requires a comprehensive inventory covering licenses, subscriptions, tenants, deployments, entitlements, SaaS, cloud services, platforms, and APIs.
• Requires VA to identify waste, fraud, abuse, over-procurement, redundant purchases, unauthorized use, and underutilized licenses.
• Requires annual training for employees who acquire, manage, or implement software assets.
• Requires annual reporting on policy updates and estimated cost savings.
• Requires implementation with existing resources and sunsets the authority after five years.