Agency Snapshot: Department of Labor

The Department of Labor is the 17th largest Federal civilian agency in terms of IT spending in FY 2010, with a budget of $584 million. DOL’s IT investments are focused on supporting the agency’s mission to foster and promote the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. Major IT investments in FY 2010 include OSHA - Information System (OIS), PBGC - Participant Services (Benefit Administration), and ETA - FLC Automated Systems (formerly DFLC Automated Systems). In addition to working on improving investment management, it is working to streamline its IT operations and secure its communication and information assets.

CIO
T. Michael Kerr
website: 
dol.gov

Key Initiatives

Effectively managing the many ongoing IT investments is one of the biggest challenges for agencies. These IT investments can range from new citizen-facing services to systems that help government employees perform their jobs more effectively. Effective management of these projects is necessary to ensure that investments do not exceed estimated costs, are completed on time, and provide promised capabilities. The metrics shown here, as well as on the more detailed IT Dashboard, provide a measure of how well agencies are doing in managing their largest investments so that citizens and managers know which investments are performing well and which need attention.

Tabular View

While technology is critical for agencies to work effectively, we must ensure that we efficiently manage our technology operations, from our infrastructure to our software to our user service, in order to prevent waste of taxpayer dollars. The government’s current priorities include centralizing key Federal IT services to decrease duplicative and wasteful spending, reducing facility space usage and energy consumption, and improving service delivery. More information on achieving operational efficiency can be found in the 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management.

Our Nation's security and economic prosperity depend on the stability and integrity of our Federal communications and information infrastructure. Threats to cyberspace pose some of the most serious challenges of the 21st century for the United States. OMB is working with agencies, the Government Accountability Office and Congress to strengthen the Federal government's IT security and privacy programs.