Chairman Comer Announces Full Committee Markup of Legislation to Improve and Modernize Government Operations

WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced a markup will take place on Wednesday, February 4 at 10:00am ET to consider a series of legislation aimed at modernizing federal technology and procurement, strengthening protections against risky supply chains, reducing waste, incentivizing savings, and ensuring more intentional government spending.

“The American people deserve a federal government that is efficient, secure, and accountable to taxpayers. The House Oversight Committee is working to modernize federal technology and procurement, confront vulnerabilities in federal supply chains, and hold agencies accountable for delivering real results. By reducing waste, incentivizing savings, and prioritizing best value over bureaucracy, the Committee is delivering on its mission to make government operations more transparent, more intentional, and more responsive to the needs of all Americans,” said Chairman Comer.

WHAT: Full Committee Markup

H.R. 7274, Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) Improvement Act of 2026: The bill strengthens the governing structure of the Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) by moving the FASC into the Executive Office of the President and increasing FASC membership requirements. In addition, it expands the FASC’s focus to include acquisition security more broadly, requires the FASC to proactively monitor and evaluate certain covered articles for ongoing risk, and authorizes the FASC to designate the issuance of removal or exclusion orders when Congressionally directed. The bill also establishes a FASC Program Office within the Executive Office of the President (at the President’s direction) to provide the FASC operational, legal, and policy support with a director designated by the FASC Chairperson. Further, the bill creates a streamlined process for Congress to designate sources of concern and requires the FASC to initiate an investigation into these Congressionally-designated sources, with appropriate due-process, government-wide agency inclusion, and processes to consider including second-order prohibitions, case-by-case agency waivers, or grandfathering provisions.

H.R. 2985, Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Reform Act: The bill reforms and reauthorizes the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) and its governing board, the Technology Modernization Board (TMB), which were established by the bipartisan Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-91). The bill also includes several measures to improve the administration of the TMF and ensure program operations adhere to original congressional intent. In addition, the bill requires TMF awards to be reimbursed at the level needed to ensure the Fund is operational until it sunsets in 2032 and creates a new requirement that agencies reimburse administrative fees. The bill also requires each agency to create an inventory of its legacy IT systems, a new oversight tool that will allow Congress to evaluate agency and government-wide priority items for legacy IT modernization and to assess how well the TMF does in funding these projects.

H.R. 4123, Federal Improvement in Technology (FIT) Procurement Act: The bill would streamline and simplify federal procurement, to help agencies acquire commercial technology in a timely way and make it easier for innovative businesses to compete for contracts. It would also require cross-functional training for the acquisition workforce and increase the simplified acquisition threshold, the minimum purchase threshold, additional acquisition thresholds, and allow for advanced payment of cloud computing for federal agencies.

H.R. 7283, Ensuring Federal Purchasing Efficiency Act: The bill would shift the re-calculation period for inflation-related adjustments from once every five years to once every three years. The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) adjusts for inflation every five years certain dollar thresholds specified in law as a factor in defining the scope of the applicability of a policy, procedure, requirement, or restriction to the procurement of property or services by a federal executive agency.

H.R. 1118, Value Over Cost Act of 2025: The bill changes a requirement pertaining to how the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program awards contracts and how agencies place orders against those contracts. This bill updates what is considered “competitive procedures” with respect to contracts awarded by the MAS program to allow for orders and contracts that result in “best value” as opposed to “lowest overall cost alternative.”

H.R. 5438, Incentivize Savings Act: The bill proposes changes to how federal agencies manage appropriations. Under the bill, if an agency has identified funds they do not intend to spend by the end of the fiscal year, 49 percent of such funds could be carried over to the next fiscal year. 49 percent of such funds would go towards paying down the national debt, and 2 percent would be used for retention bonuses to reward employees who helped identify such funds.

H.R. 5000, Cybersecurity Hiring Modernization Act: The bill prohibits the use of mandatory education requirements in hiring for federal cyber security-related positions, except when legally required to perform the job in the State or locality where its located. This bill also narrows the ability of federal agencies to use candidates’ education credentials alone to satisfy minimum qualifications for federal cybersecurity jobs. Furthermore, it requires that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) annually publish online changes to education qualification standards for federal cybersecurity jobs, and information about the education level of new hires to these jobs.

H.R. 7256, Federal Workforce Early Separation Incentives Act: The Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP) Authority, also known as buyout authority, allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer employees lump-sum payments as an incentive to voluntarily separate. This bill would raise the maximum allowable VSIP payment from the current $25,000 to the employee’s six-month salary and allow agencies to calibrate their offerings under that cap depending on need. It also ties the cap to inflation so the policy will remain viable in the future.

H.R. 7265, Vote By Mail Tracking Act: This bill amends Title 39 of the U.S. Code (Postal Service) to require ballots mailed within the United States for all federal elections be mailed in an envelope with a unique Postal Service barcode that allows the Postal Service to track the ballot through the mail.

Several postal naming measures

DATE: Wednesday, February 4, 2026

TIME: 10:00am ET

LOCATION: HVC-210, U.S. Capitol Visitors Center

The markup will be open and available to the public and press and will be livestreamed online at https://oversight.house.gov/.