But Ezell also expects CIOs to now wade into the political arena. Political issues facing CIOs include cybersecurity, AI, cloud computing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), he says. The Trump administration has moved to end DEI programs in the federal government.
“The role of agency CIOs has changed dramatically in recent years,” the Ezell memo says. “No longer the station of impartial and apolitical technocrats, the modern agency CIO role demands policy-making and policy-determining capabilities across a range of controversial political topics.”
Open to unqualified candidates
One longtime government IT expert called the reclassification a terrible idea. Allowing CIOs to be political appointees opens the job to people who don’t understand US laws governing federal IT systems and to those who don’t have IT backgrounds, says John Weiler, CEO and CIO of the IT Acquisition Advisory Council, an organization created by Congress in 2007 to advise the US government on IT spending.
