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E-Gov - The talk of the town!

True to its mission, the E-Gov & Lines of Business initiatives continue to progress and produce results for citizens, business, and government. Agencies are migrating to payroll providers through E-Payroll; citizens are using GovBenefits.gov to access benefit information; and agency human resource management services are becoming more efficient through the consolidation efforts of the Human Resources Line of Business.

All this success has recently led to recognition from groups outside managing partner agencies and OMB. For example, USA.gov, managed by GSA's USA Services, recently joined the renowned ranks of websites such as eBay, Google and Amazon.com on the list of "25 Sites We Can't Live Without" in Time magazine. Also, E-Rulemaking and SSA (through the E-Vital initiative) were both awarded the 2007 Government Computer News Award as programs that exemplify the success and results from combining vision and IT innovations with attention to detail and willingness to collaborate.

USA Services

USA Services helps make the government more citizen-centric by providing citizens with easy access to accurate, consistent, and timely government information. To achieve this, USA Services provides citizens consolidated information about all levels of government through an array of integrated channels, including USA.gov, telephone and email inquiry responses from the GSA, National Contact Center, and print materials distributed from Pueblo, Colorado. Through the USA Services Advocates program, the Federal government continues to become more "citizen-centric" by providing "Best Values and Practices" to federal agencies in citizen customer service contact and response needs.

Time magazine recently named USA.gov, the official web portal for the U.S. government, among the "25 Sites We Can't Live Without." USA.gov joins the notable ranks of other websites on the prestigious list with Amazon, eBay, Google, WebMD and Yahoo.com. The article is available at the following link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1638266_1638253_1638243,00.html.

E-Rulemaking

E-Rulemaking, through Regulations.gov, encourages public participation in the Federal decision-making process by allowing citizens to view documents and submit comments concerning Federal regulations, adjudications, and other actions. Today, through the migrations of 23 of the 26 of scorecard agencies to the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS), over 80% of Federal rulemaking has supporting documentation available on Regulations.gov. This represents a significant increase over the 37% of rulemaking supported at the end of FY 2006.

As a result of the continued efforts and success of E-Rulemaking, Government Computer News (GCN) just announced E-Rulemaking as a recipient of a 2007 GCN Award. GCN Awards are presented annually to projects and leaders that exemplify the success and results from combining vision and IT innovations with attention to detail and a willingness to collaborate. The article is available at the following link: http://www.gcn.com/print/26_26/45188-1.html.

E-Vital

The E-Vital initiative assists states in automating the paper-bound death registration process through an electronic, web-based system called Electronic Death Registration (EDR). EDR connects various death registration participants (e.g., funeral directors, physicians, hospitals, medical examiners, coroners) with the Bureau of Vital Statistics (BVS) in the relevant state or jurisdiction. Currently, 18 states and territories use EDR. Furthermore, 31 states and territories have been awarded contracts and will determine the schedules for implementing EDR.

As a product of the great achievements made by the E-Vital initiative, Government Computer News (GCN) recently announced SSA's EDR system as a recipient of a 2007 GCN Award. GCN Awards are presented annually to projects and leaders that exemplify the success and results from combining vision and IT innovations with an attention to detail and a willingness to collaborate. The article is available at the following link: http://www.gcn.com/print/26_26/45182-1.html.

Geospatial One-Stop

The Geospatial One-Stop Web portal, www.geodata.gov, promotes intergovernmental information sharing, helping users find geospatial data and resources faster and easier. The portal combines thousands of geospatial resources from Federal, state, local, tribal and private sources and makes them available from a single website. In May 2007, version 2.1 of the portal was released. One of the key enhancements was improvement in the search results so the most geographically relevant data are listed first. Also, improvements were made to the Map Viewer and to tools used by data providers allowing management data on the portal.

Geodata.gov continues to gain support from data providers and end users. The number of records in the system has grown from about 100,000 in September 2005, to over 150,000 in September 2007. The portal also features a "Marketplace" for information on potential opportunities to leverage resources and collaborate on data purchases. The number of partnership opportunities in the Marketplace grew from approximately 600 in FY 2005 to over 2,000 in September 2007, and the number of visits to the site has increased to about 60,000 per month in 2007, twice the traffic of 2005.

E-Authentication

The E-Authentication Identity Federation was developed and maintained by the E-Authentication Initiative. By eliminating the need for each agency to create and maintain a separate credentialing system for each of their online applications, the Federation helps government agencies control costs associated with authenticating the identity of end users. Participating members can recognize and trust log-in IDs that are issued by other trusted Federation members.

Over the last year, the E-Authentication Identity Federation has doubled the number of applications accessible to end users. Currently, 64 applications are available, including the grantor side of Grants.gov, the Federal Government's single website providing information on over 1000 grant programs, and Myhealthvet.va.gov, the Department of Veterans Affairs' eHealth portal providing online access to important health information and prescription refills for all veterans.

Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA)

In September 2007, OMB reviewed agencies' progress against their EA and Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) development milestones for FY 07 Q4. This quarterly review gauges each agency's progress in the development of their EA program and implementation of IPv6. OMB continues to work with agencies to evaluate and improve their enterprise architectures. During the most recent annual assessment (March 2007), OMB rated 19 of 24 agencies' enterprise architecture as "effective" against the Enterprise Architecture Assessment Framework v2.1 criteria. These architectures adequately describe the agency mission and the resources needed to achieve them, and they have been used to drive satisfactory program performance and/or cost savings. Since March 2007, two of the underperforming agencies have elevated their architectures to an "effective" level. OMB continues to work with the remaining agencies to drive toward an effective rating for the February 2008 assessment.

OMB also continues to provide ongoing guidance to the E-Gov Lines of Business task forces (including Geospatial, Budget Formulation & Execution, and IT Infrastructure Optimization), and agencies implementing Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

IT Privacy and Security

Quarterly performance updates continue to work toward achieving the IT security goals of the E-Gov Scorecard and implementing the privacy provisions of the E-Gov and Privacy Acts. Currently, approximately 88% of agency systems have identified and validated the effectiveness of security controls - a process called certification and accreditation (C&A). Presently, 81% of applicable systems are covered by a complete and current Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and 75% of applicable systems have a current System of Records Notice (SORN) published in the Federal Register.