On September 30, 2022, The Department of Information Resources presented their Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) at a Legislative Budget Board hearing. An archive of this hearing can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
Budget Committee Members
John Montgomery, House Appropriations Committee
Charlie Smith, Legislative Budget Board
Jason Briggs, Office of the Governor
Anne Allensworth, Senate Finance
Joaquin Guadarrama, Lt. Governor’s Office
Amanda Crawford, Executive Director at DIR
- LAR requests five exceptional items that they see as essential needs
- Exceptional Item 1: increase number of FTEs; discovered during ZBB, workload increased without increase in staff
- Since 2013, additional functions have been assigned to DIR, but number of FTEs has only increased by .9%, request to increase cap by 39 bringing total FTEs to 267, salary will be covered by administrative fees
- Exceptional Item: round 2 of Regional Security Operations Center (RSOC) pilot program, request expansion of program through SB 475
- Request two additional RSOCs at UT Austin and one at UT Rio Grande, would help provide crucial cybersecurity resources to state, will build Texas’s cyber workforce
- Exceptional Item 3: authority only request to develop an E procurement solution for the agency; current system lacks capacity and capability to meet needs; submitted to Joint Oversight Committee as well
- Exceptional Item 4: authority only request for DIR to develop new Vendor Sales Reporting portal (VSR), allows vendors to submit monthly sales reports, current iteration has many problems and last updated seven years ago
- Exceptional Item 5: general revenue request to increase capacity for cybersecurity logs; state is constantly targeted by Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs); network traffic logs are only way to find ATP activity
Nick Villalpando, CFO at DIR
- Additional item of DIR board vote to increase salary and classification of DIR executive director to $276,000 salary and to a Group 9
- Due to privatized IT model in Texas, most of what DIR does is carried out by 600-800 contractors under their direction at any given time
Amanda Crawford, Executive Director at DIR
- Montgomery -When was the last time DIR had a significant shift in authorized FTEs?
- We have the same amount as we did in 2013
- Montgomery – How has the procurement staff been?
- Our turnover levels are below the state average, but within the chief procurement office is a 36% pass over rate mostly due to extremely high workloads; some manage over 120 contracts
- Montgomery – if state were to adopt a more permanent telework policy is there something additional that would be needed to handle that?
- Yes, we have already doubled bandwidth and helped companies use VPNs; from a technological standpoint we are ready
- Smith – Does the agency have an updated list of cybersecurity and modernization projects from HB 4018?
- I don’t have an update on that, but I think the number continues increasing; still waiting for additional direction from the committee
- Agencies are submitting a modernization plan today
- Briggs – you anticipate the number of sales through the cooperative contract program staying or increasing?
- Yes, wouldn’t see a significant downturn; saw a jump in 2020 with move to remote work and hasn’t slowed down yet
Public Testimony
Hope Osborn, Texas 2036
- Believe we should have 21st century technologies to support Texans, recommend $1 B investment into that
Anne Bishop, Texas Public Employees Association
- Don’t want to lose people to the private sector, last across the board pay was in 2014 and a 27% decline in purchasing power; want to make sure budget is there for agencies that are funded differently
- Pandemic allowed remote work, can potentially attract new state employees so should keep this in mind