Technology is constantly advancing, and every year we see countless new products, services, and methods come up in the private sector that have potential uses for government as well. By responsibly embracing this progress and creating opportunities to incorporate private sector innovations in the important work that our state government does, we have the potential to improve governmental operations and ultimately save taxpayers money.

I plan to introduce legislation that would help encourage this partnership by offering our state government another “tool in the toolbox” as we work to promote innovation in Pennsylvania, and have our state government lead by example. My legislation would expand the State Agency Green Technology Implementation Act, initially passed with strong bipartisan support in 2014 to connect the state government with energy efficiency technologies, to more broadly include technologies that could demonstrate the potential to reduce costs or improve operational efficiency. This would create a transparent standing process through which the PA Department of General Services could partner with businesses to demonstrate the efficacy of a technology, product, or process on a trial basis, subject to appropriate safeguards and at no cost to the taxpayers.

This model for a state government “test bed program” for technologies has already been successfully used in Connecticut since 2009, where it has saved the state millions of dollars through reduced costs.

This process would bring clarity to businesses that are interested in working with our state to pilot their technologies, while showing that Pennsylvania supports our innovation economy and is committed to constantly modernizing and improving how we do business. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to give our state another tool as we work to lead the way in implementing efficient technologies and delivering value to our taxpayers, constituents, and state workforce.