Senate Dishes Out Second Helping Of SAMOSA To Kill Costly Software Licenses

Sloppy government software licensing practices are back on the menu in the US Senate. 

The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA - yes, seriously) Act was reintroduced in the Senate yesterday by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) following the reintroduction of a functionally identical bill in the House in late March. Like the House version, the Senate copy of the bill would require federal government agencies to audit their software inventory, eliminate unnecessary subscriptions, outline better license management practices, catalog software usage and the like. 

SAMOSA passed in the House in December, late in the 2024 legislative session. The Senate version was placed on the legislative calendar for July 2023, but never made it past that stage, despite considerable bipartisan support, and timed out when Congress wrapped up for the year.

Like the first, this second serving of SAMOSA has support on both sides of the aisle.

"President Trump wants to cut waste and spend taxpayer dollars wisely," cosponsor Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said of the bill. "By consolidating their inventory, this bill forces federal agencies to spend as if taxpayers were spending their own money."

"Let's pass this bipartisan bill to force federal agencies to take commonsense steps when purchasing software," Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), another Republican cosponsor, added. 

Poor software license management has been a known issue in the federal government for some time. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a January 2024 report that "inconsistent and incomplete data" at various federal agencies meant that many offices had too many licenses, were unable to track the status of their various software purchases and were generally spending money unnecessarily. 

When asked if it had any newer data on the status of sloppy software procurement, the GAO told us the January 2024 study was the most recent. Newer data might not be necessary, though. 

"The 18 recommendations in the report remain open and we've not yet seen a notable amount of progress to close any of them," a GAO spokesperson told us. 

A May report by the GAO found more than $100 billion in savings available to the federal government if it were to eliminate redundant and unnecessary IT investments. Restrictive software licenses that force government agencies to pay higher prices than necessary were also covered in the May report.

A Thursday press release about the reintroduction of the SAMOSA Act in the Senate pegged the potential software licensing savings at $750 million per year. 

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You'd think that with broad bipartisan support and a presidential administration making a lot of noise about reining in costs, the SAMOSA Act should be an easy pass this time around. Not necessarily. 

The House version of the bill, introduced in March, hasn't budged since being assigned to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee (now officially known as the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability) for markup. That Committee has instead spent recent weeks discussing such critical issues as eliminating transgender athletes from women's sports, whether the federal government engaged in a coverup of President Kennedy's assassination, and accusing nonprofit organizations of using government funds to "advance destructive policies" like fighting climate change. 

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee's Republican staff, which sets the agenda as the majority, told The Register that it had no updates to provide on the status of the House's copy of the SAMOSA Act. It's a good thing they have their priorities straight. ®