Federal CIO launches effort to 'rationalize' government’s web footprint

The Trump administration is planning to streamline the government’s web presence as part of its effort to eliminate waste, Federal Chief Information Officer Gregory Barbaccia told CIOs across the government in a Tuesday email obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

“Our current footprint is both inexusably inefficient to operate and unnecessarily burdensome on the American people,” wrote Barbaccia, who formerly worked at Palantir but now oversees technology across the federal government. “We have to get control of the sprawl, rein in wasteful spend, and deliver the world-class digital experiences that Americans deserve.”

First, Barbaccia is asking agencies to provide details about their public-facing websites, including the technology and contracts associated with them. Sprints focused on the “biggest opportunities” will follow, according to the email.

The effort appears to build on work undertaken during the Biden administration to make sense of the government’s thousands of websites. 

In late 2023, the Office of Management and Budget released guidance under the 21st Century IDEA Act — a law Trump signed in late 2018 with requirements meant to improve the government’s online presence — which called on agencies to retire duplicative websites.

Since then, agencies have inventoried how many federal websites exist — nearly 7,000 public-facing ones — and OMB has pushed for better measurement of elements like accessibility and design. 

Barbaccia's email contained talking points relevant both to longtime customer experience efforts in the government and the efficiency focus of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. 

“More websites often mean more confusion and more time wasted by everyday Americans trying to find answers to simple questions or access the services that they depend on,” the email reads. “Even worse, as we’ve built more, we’ve done so around our own complicated organization structure, not the needs of the people we serve. This can’t continue.”

The first Trump administration did push for customer experience efforts meant to improve how Americans interact with the government, although some have questioned how this work will fare with Trump 2.0’s goal to shrink the government’s workforce. Trump appointees have eliminated some tech-focused teams entirely, some of which were handling website management. 

“We have the opportunity to rationalize and transform our public web footprint. The federal government has a vast and fragmented footprint built on equally fragmented operations and infrastructure. There are thousands of public-facing websites yet only a fraction of them drives the bulk of user traffic,” wrote Barbaccia. “We’re spending taxpayer dollars on sites that aren’t necessary, on fragmented and bloated contracts, and on technology that is mismatched with business needs.”