The House General Laws subcommittee voted 7-0 to report House Bill 1632, which would change oversight of the Office of Data Governance and Analytics by placing the office’s operational functions within the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and directing the chief information officer to obtain space and resources for the move.

Delegate Hayes, the bill patron, told members the change is intended to increase efficiency: the office already operates technical infrastructure such as the open data portal and data trust, and many staff are physically located at VITA. Joshua Hesselinger of VITA and representatives of the Office of Data Governance and Analytics testified in support, describing the bill as a “simple reorganization bill” that does not change the office’s roles or functions.

Hesselinger said the configuration would leave the chief data officer in the governor’s office while moving other ODGA functions into VITA. He told the committee: “The office’s employees are actually already physically at VITA’s location. The solution in this bill of leaving the CDO in the governor’s office, but moving the rest of the office within VITA, makes a lot of sense.”

The measure was moved and seconded and reported by roll call, 7-0.

The bill will continue through the legislative process as reported out of subcommittee.