News
Press Releases: Government to Citizen
November 4, 2002
Department of Labor Recognized with Two Technology Awards
GovBenefits.gov Recipient of Gracie Award; Labor Dept Receives Performance InstituteĦs Top E-Government Honor
Washington D.C. - GovBenefits.gov, a web site designed to facilitate the interaction between individuals and government, has been honored with Government Executive magazine’s 2002 Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Award. Also recently, but in a separate competition, the Department of Labor won the Performance Institute’s ”Overall Performance in E-Government“ Award.
”We are proud that GovBenefits.gov has been recognized for its citizen-centric approach and for its advanced technology,“ said Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, Patrick Pizzella. ”Mostly, we are pleased that the Labor Department’s E-Government efforts in support of the President’s Management Agenda are being recognized.“
The site, part of the Bush Administration’s E-Government initiative, consolidates information formerly found on thousands of web pages. GovBenefits.gov is designed as a one-stop resource for citizens to learn if they may be eligible to receive government benefits. The web site allows users to answer a short series of simple, yes-no questions, then returns a list of federal benefit programs for which they may be eligible.
GovBenefits.gov is one of 24 key initiatives that comprise the President’s E-Government Strategy, an integral part of the President’s Management Agenda. The Department of Labor serves as the managing partner of the project, which is the collaborative effort of 10 federal agencies.
A panel of government experts in federal technology advancement selected GovBenefits.gov, with 9 other projects in different categories, among 140 nominees for the 2002 Grace Hopper Award. GovBenefits.gov was honored for providing individuals and enterprises with access to useful government information. The site will be recognized at the 11th annual presentation of these awards on December 3, 2002.
On October 30, 2002, the U.S. Department of Labor was presented with the Performance Institute’s Overall Performance Award for its management of GovBenefits.gov The Department’s approach to GovBenefits.gov and the Department’s Public Key Infrastructure project were highlighted as E-Government ”Best Practices“ in the Performance Institute’s report entitled ”Creating a Performance-Based Electronic Government,“ which was released in unison with the awards ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. A panel of representatives from various ”good government“ groups—led by the Performance Institute and including Reason Public Policy Institute as well as Fujitsu Consulting and the Gartner Group—compiled the report by reviewing E-Government approaches across the federal government. In doing so, the representatives selected the Labor Department as the federal agency with the best performance on E-Government issues.
