The President.s Management Agenda (PMA) initiative to Expand E-Government delivered significant results to citizens over the past three years. In 2005 and beyond, the government will continue to identify new opportunities for stronger management of Federal government IT investments. Through the PMA, the E-Government Act, the Clinger-Cohen Act, budget guidance, and other tools, the Federal government is able to make it easier for the citizens and businesses to interact with their government. Additionally, the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Framework will continue to guide the interfaces between systems and re-use of data and applications where appropriate. This service-oriented architecture approach will help to ensure future government IT investments leverage existing capabilities to their maximum potential and provide the most efficient and customer-centered services.

Recent Results in the Expanding Electronic Government:

President's E-Government Initiatives:

USA Services: Immediately following the Indian Ocean tsunami, USA Service.s telephone response service expanded hours and increased staffing to support the State Department's Office of Overseas Citizen Services in helping American citizens throughout the world. While USA Services normally operates the hotline Monday through Friday, 8 am to 8 pm EST, it quickly opened telephone lines 24/7 to an American public frantically trying to get information on friends and relatives traveling or staying in the area hit by the disaster. The hotline has been flooded with anxious callers. A service that ordinarily handles about 300 calls per day has been averaging over 2,000 calls per day. A total of more than 22,000 calls were received during the 10-day period from December 26, 2004 to January 4, 2005.

Expanding Electronic Tax Products for Businesses: This initiative allows new business owners to apply for and receive a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) online. In 2004, over 1 million businesses used this service to apply for a Federal EIN online. Recently this capability has been enhanced so that businesses registering in participating states may be able to register with the state and apply for a Federal EIN online in one single process. Previously, businesses had to apply separately to obtain their state business registration and to obtain a Federal EIN. Now, businesses registering in participating states can select the option to receive a provisional Federal EIN immediately, then within two weeks receive a letter confirming the EIN application with the official Federal EIN from the IRS automatically.

Disaster Management: Disaster Management (DM) provides Federal, state, and local emergency managers better online access to disaster management-related information from over 26 Federal agencies (and other sources) and planning and response tools. Over the past six months DM.s website, DisasterHelp.gov, has more than doubled its number of registered user accounts to over 34,000 from all 50 states. In addition, DM.s toolset, Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS), now has over 1,000 operating groups from all 50 states and has been used in 69 actual emergencies and 344 disaster preparedness exercises.

E-Vital: E-Vital continues to drive adoption and utilization of Electronic Death Registration (EDR). Minnesota and the District of Columbia (DC) recently deployed their Electronic Death Registration (EDR) systems in coordination with the E-Vital initiative. The E-Vital initiative has now assisted four states and DC in implementing their EDR systems, and recently signed contracts with eleven more states and New York City to deploy their EDR systems in 2005 and 2006. EDR automates the transfer of death certificate information using the Internet, resulting in more accurate and available information. EDR will save the Federal government between $36 million and $41 million in program savings annually when implemented in 90 percent of the States (estimated to occur in 2010) by preventing incorrect benefit payments from the Federal government.

E-Travel: Since May 2004, when GSA approved and certified three E-Travel Service (eTS) providers for use, over 45 agencies, accounting for 91 percent of Executive Branch agency travel vouchers, have placed task orders with the approved vendors. eTS handles travel arrangements from beginning to end, including booking reservations, obtaining approvals, vouchering trips, and providing agencies the option to interface with their accounting systems. The focus in 2005 is deployment . eTS vendors have already started work with agencies on interfaces and traveler training. The majority of the agencies that have already selected an eTS vendor plan to have travelers using the service during fiscal 2005 . the Departments of Treasury and Transportation currently have travelers processing transactions. The GSA chartered eTS Advisory Board and newly established User Groups will begin sharing deployment experiences in support of assisting all agencies toward this common process.

Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE): The IAE initiative creates a secure business environment that facilitates and supports cost-effective acquisition of goods and services by Federal agencies, while eliminating inefficiencies in the current acquisition environment. Several of IAE's component systems have had major successes: ORCA (Online Representations and Certifications Application) is now a Federal mandate as published in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and replaces the paper based representations and certifications process; CCR (Central Contractor Registration) became federally mandated in the FAR in October 2003 and as of January 2005 there are 352,000 active vendors registered; FPDS-NG (Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation) now gives the public access to millions of Federal contract actions that were previously unavailable; FedTeDS (Federal Technical Data Solution) was mandated by five boroughs in New York City for procurements with sensitive acquisition related drawings.

Lines of Business (LoB): Cross-agency teams analyzed opportunities for integration and consolidation in the areas of Financial Management, Human Resources Management, and Grants Management. They have recommended the establishment of government-wide service providers in the areas of Financial Management and Human Resources Management. The Grants Management team is developing plans for the consolidation of Grants Management activities across the government. The analysis showed savings of more than $5 billion can be expected over a 10 year timeframe through the consolidation of Financial Management and Human Resource Management systems and the standardization and optimization of associated business processes and functions.

To realize these benefits, the Administration asked agencies with the skills and capabilities to function as government-wide service providers in the areas of Human Resources Management and/or Financial Management to submit business cases for doing so as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 budget process. Over ten agencies responded to the Administration's request and submitted business cases to function as government-wide service providers. The Office of Management and budget is currently evaluating agency submissions using a due diligence checklist, developed in conjunction with third-party industry groups. The due diligence checklist assesses potential service providers. abilities in terms of past performance, current capabilities, and ability to operate a customer-focused organization. Based on the results of this analysis, agencies will be designated as eligible to enter into competitions to become cross-agency service providers for Human Resources Management and Financial Management services. Selected agencies will be announced in the President.s FY 2006 Budget.

Rather than expend significant effort and resources modernizing existing systems, agencies will select, through a competitive process, beginning in FY 2005, a government-wide service provider for Human Resources Management and/or Financial Management services. Upon migration to common, government-wide solutions, agencies will shut down existing systems . which will not only save money but also make available resources for agencies to better focus on achieving their missions.

Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA): OMB recently named a Chief Architect who will focus on helping the Federal government demonstrate results in mission performance through the use of enterprise architecture (EA) and has committed to delivering a strategic plan for the FEA by the end of January 2005.

Recent accomplishments for the FEA include the release of the Data Reference Model Volume I, which completes the core set of reference models for the FEA. OMB will now work more closely with agencies to assist them in maturing their EA programs, including reviewing their plans to complete and use their EAs to drive results within their own organizations.

IT Privacy and Security: Agencies' annual E-Government Act submissions indicate continued compliance with OMB guidance prohibiting use of persistent tracking technology except in compelling circumstances approved by the agency head or designee. Only seven agencies have adopted persistent tracking technology, formally approved and appropriately noted in their web privacy policies. E-Government Act submissions also indicate agencies have made great strides in implementing the requirement for machine-readable web privacy policies. Twenty-six agencies now use the P3P standard to provide a summary privacy notice accessible by a visitor's web browser. Last year only two agencies met this requirement.

Agencies. efforts to ensure IT systems have effective security and privacy controls continue to yield results. As of first quarter FY 2005, 16 of 24 agencies report they have certified and accredited over 90 percent of their systems, up from only 13 agencies in the previous quarter. Another four agencies have secured between 80 and 90 percent of their systems, and three agencies expect to exceed 90 percent within the next three months.

More information about Expanded Electronic Government, the E-Gov Report, or other E-Gov topics of interest can be found at www.egov.gov, the official web site of the President's E-Government Initiative. The web site is an up-to-date, public source of information about the E-Government Initiative and its accomplishments.

Sincerely,

Karen Evans
Administrator
Office of E-Government and Information Technology