E-Gov Act implementation picking up steam

The Office of Management and Budget by the end of the month is requiring agencies to reference www.regulations.gov on all Federal Register notices and on each agency’s Internet home page.In a memo from OMB’s e-government and IT administrator Karen Evans and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator John Graham, the administration last week asked agencies to make the public more aware of the online rulemaking site and the ability to comment on it.By encouraging more public participation in E-Rulemaking, one of the 25 Quicksilver initiatives, OMB completed another of its goals under the E-Government Act of 2002. In the to Congress on the implementation of the law, OMB deputy director for management Clay Johnson told Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), chairwoman and ranking member of the Governmental Affairs Committee, and Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman and ranking member of the Government Reform Committee, that the act has been “extremely valuable” in helping to promote e-government.Lieberman, the co-author of the law, said much work remains to be done, and that he will request a General Accounting Office report on how agencies have complied with the requirements in the act.In the report, OMB detailed how it used the E-Government Fund, how it complied with the act’s 17 provisions and included an agency-by-agency breakdown on their e-government accomplishments.The administration spent almost $3.6 million of the $5 million E-Government fund on five e-government projects and the two phases of the lines-of-business consolidation project.OMB spent $1.1 million on analyzing IT and assessing the lines-of-business projects as well as developing business cases for each of the five areas—human resources, financial management, case management, health infrastructure and grants management.Three of the four E-Payroll agencies received $510,000 to help agencies migrate to the common system. The Office of Personnel Management received $200,000 to expand the E-Training project management office to assist agencies to migrate to the GoLearn.gov site more quickly.OMB also earmarked $540,000 to the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services to develop a governmentwide content management strategy.Recreation One-Stop, managed by the Interior Department, received $800,000 to develop the request for proposals for a single agency recreation reservation system, transition agencies to the new system, and buy hardware, software and telecommunications services.The USA Freedom Corps received $250,000 to enhance its site, and the Small Business Administration’s Business Gateway project collected $1.6 million for the creation of a project management office and other support program activities, such as a solution architecture guide.Agencies made significant progress with posting and sharing geospatial information, the report said. OMB said that 24 agencies have posted more than 214 data sets to www.geodata.gov, and 18 states have posted 213 state records and 2,126 local jurisdiction records.