E-gov environment shifting

NASCIO's IT funding white paper

The information technology policy environment underwent many changes throughout 2001, as shown by several white papers by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

Following a May 2001 meeting near Washington, D.C., the group developed opinions on many IT issues, including the federal government's decision not to loosen its information technology funding policies and establish a central authority and vision for federal IT. Those opinions were included in the white papers, which were prepared following the May meeting but posted just recently on the NASCIO Web site.

At the time the white papers were crafted, NASCIO determined that these federal decisions were impeding the states' abilities to roll out e-government because restrictions on IT funding to the states often "severely limits the effectiveness of that funding."

Since then, NASCIO has submitted draft language for legislation to reduce the restrictions on federal IT funding to the states, based models that call for purchasing enterprise hardware and software and recovering costs by charging state agencies on a per-transaction basis.

And in June, the Bush administration named Mark Forman associate director for information technology and e-government within the Office of Management and Budget, and created an interagency task force to develop 23 e-government initiatives.

The states, through NASCIO are involved in many of those initiatives and are pleased with the progress made since Forman's appointment, said Rock Regan, NASCIO president and Connecticut CIO.