The Alabama House of Representatives is considering House Bill 207, which would clean up state code around a 2017 expansion of duties for the state Office of Information Technology — but which would also “expand the services provided by the office to include cybersecurity,” according to its text, and compel it to create a state technology quality assurance board. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Shaw, passed the House on March 18 and is now under Senate consideration.
In Florida, its Legislature is pursuing further consolidation. State Senate Bill 7026, introduced this month, would replace the existing Florida Digital Service (FDS) with a cabinet-level entity, the Agency for State Systems and Enterprise Technology. It would operate as the enterprise agency for IT governance and be in place by 2028, if the bill passes. It was introduced to the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee March 17 by state Sen. Gayle Harrell. Passed by Appropriations, it was introduced to the full state Senate Wednesday.
Of note, Alabama’s OIT is already a cabinet-level agency; Florida’s FDS is not.
The extent to which state IT is centralized or consolidated varies by state. According to NASCIO, state CIOs in 2024 rated infrastructure consolidation, services consolidation, and centralized IT project management and oversight as priorities. Surveyed then by NASCIO as to how their organizations were moving to deliver services to agencies, 90 percent of respondents indicated consolidation of infrastructure.
That trend has held sway in the state of Oklahoma, which consolidated 77 state agencies by mandate in six years, and 110 entities by 2018, according to a 2018 unification report. This year, a bill proposed something different.
SB 179, which has not advanced from committee since Feb.17, takes the opposite approach and seeks to dissolve the centralized state Information Services Division (ISD), a core unit within the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). The bill, which would give agencies autonomy, was introduced by Sen. David Bullard. Representatives of his office did not respond to requests for comment.
ISD support “includes threat monitoring, incident response coordination, enterprise security tools, and the development of statewide technology and cybersecurity standards. Information Services supports state agencies by delivering cost-effective and secure IT services, so agencies can focus on their core missions,” OMES Public Information Manager Christa Helfrey said via email.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the impact and content of Alabama House Bill 207.
