Mangala Kuppa, who took over as DOL’s chief AI officer this week after previously serving as its deputy CAIO, believes the agency has even more to be confident about when it comes to its work on the technology, possessing a “leg up” on scaling AI quickly.

In an interview with FedScoop, Kuppa pointed to DOL’s previous efforts to modernize internal operations and customer-facing services as part of the department’s journey to implement emerging technologies like AI. Having foundational building blocks and existing infrastructure, along with existing AI applications, has made it “easier” for the agency to scale up, she said. 

“It’s not a ‘big bang’ approach,” said Kuppa, who also serves as DOL’s chief technology officer. “Another aspect that we take very seriously in modernizing is [to] take this opportunity to not just update the technology, but also take this opportunity to re-engineer the business process to help the public.” 

Kuppa pointed to an internal shared services initiative that designated the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to be a “shared services provider for all Departmental IT services.”  That process, Kuppa said, has allowed the department to keep an inventory of all systems and technologies and understand where the legacy systems or opportunities for improvement might exist.

“Using that methodology, we’ve been looking at all high-risk systems, because maybe the technology is very legacy and outdated,” Kuppa said. “We’ve been using that methodology to start those modernization initiatives.”

By considering the age of the technology, the operations burden, security vulnerabilities, regulation compliance and other parameters, DOL came up with a methodology that scores each mission system to determine if it is a candidate for modernization. The agency then looks at the scores on a consistent basis and revises based on new information that becomes available.

These systems can be major: the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration, for example, which provides labor certifications when a company files for hiring an immigrant workforce, was scored for modernization.

“Being an immigrant, I wasn’t aware DOL had a hand in my immigration journey there,” Kuppa said. 

The Technology Modernization Fund has played an “instrumental” role in the department “finding the resources to modernize,” Kuppa said.

She gave the example of using TMF funds to expedite temporary visa applications, which is expected to save 45 days of cycle time for processing labor certification applications.

According to a case study on the TMF site, that project contributed to $1.9 million in annual cost savings, and a key part of the innovation allowed the application forms to auto-populate with the previous year’s information.

“Usually all immigrants eventually start filing for permanent visa applications,” Kuppa said. “Again, you have to repeat the process of labor certification, and so we had two different systems not communicating with each other.”

For Kuppa, modernization is ultimately an exercise in reimagining where new technologies can ultimately be most helpful.

“We have great partnership, we work very closely with our programs and then we have these dialogues every day, in terms of the system’s development lifecycle,” she said. “And that’s how we approach modernization.”

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In its annual update to the IRA Strategic Operating Plan, the tax agency said it is reliant on IRA funds for digitization and other technological innovations after the appropriations process for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 zeroed out its money for modernization. When those IRA funds are exhausted by fiscal 2026, the IRS said automated taxpayer solutions will be cut back and cyber and cloud work will be incomplete, increasing the risk of cyberattacks and system failures.

“The IRS will continue focusing on making improvements and efficient use of funding,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a press release. “We highlight accomplishments rather than taking a victory lap because more work remains. But to stress the importance of continuing this momentum, the IRS will continue working to make a difference for the nation’s taxpayers. At the same time, it’s critical that the IRS has stable, secure funding to allow technology modernization and taxpayer service improvements to continue into the future.”

The accomplishments referenced by Werfel run the gamut of digital projects. Over the past year, the IRS said it used IRA funding to expand online services — pointing specifically to improvements with the Where’s My Refund? tool — resulting in fewer phone calls, paper processes and other burdensome tasks for agency workers. Additionally, the IRS continues to tout its Direct File pilot: More than 140,000 returns this tax season were filed electronically through the agency’s program, though its future remains up in the air.

The agency also leaned into artificial intelligence, pairing the technology with advanced analytics to identify “complex partnerships for audits.” The result of that collaboration between data scientists and tax enforcement officials was 60 audits launched on corporations with average assets exceeding $24 billion, in addition to 76 examinations of “the largest partnerships in the U.S. that represent a cross section of industries including hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships, publicly traded partnerships, large law firms, and other industries.”

Ahead of the anticipated funding shortfall two years from now, the agency said it aims to “accelerate” several digitization efforts in fiscal 2025. Those efforts include an expansion of online services and the modernization of foundational agency technology and “aged programming from the point of intake of tax returns and information systems.” Data security will be prioritized in these efforts, the agency noted.

The IRS will also lean into digitization by making as many as 150 non-tax forms available in digital mobile-friendly formats — on top of the 20 it provided in fiscal 2024 — while enabling “scanning at the point of entry virtually” for every paper-filed tax and information return.  

Still, the IRS said that absent “sustained funding,” the agency will fall short of meeting the modernization goals laid out in its report — especially once IRA appropriations run dry and “if inadequate levels of discretionary funding once again result in underinvestment and service gaps.”

“Without help from Congress, taxpayers will have a difficult time finding someone at the IRS to talk to for help in FY 26,” a supplement document to the plan stated. “The consequences will be a return to the low levels of service, technology that does not fully reflect the digital world we live in, and a return to low audit rates that allow some taxpayers to avoid paying what they owe.”

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The Government Accountability Office found that although the NTIA’s modernization planning is “aligned with several leading practices,” its shortcomings on the aforementioned points undermine the project’s potential for success at an especially critical time for federal radio-frequency spectrum — a scarce natural resource that is used for everything from satellite communications to navigation systems.

Tasked with managing federal use of spectrum, the NTIA has already identified the IT systems that it aims to modernize and submitted a contract order for acquisition planning support, the GAO notes. Agencies that use spectrum largely rely on NTIA-provided IT, though a handful — such as the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration — supplement their own IT with the NTIA’s systems. 

The NTIA has checked several boxes in its modernization efforts, including the creation of an implementation team with designated leadership, securing a funding source, setting outcome-oriented goals and establishing processes for progress reports to management and adapting plans. Before the NTIA can progress to the design phase of its modernization project, however, it “has to complete a number of activities including finalizing a concept of operations, assessing alternatives, and developing project management plans,” the GAO reported. 

NTIA officials told the GAO that they’re working on cost estimates ahead of an upcoming milestone review with two IT investment review boards, and MITRE has been enlisted as part of the estimation process. The GAO report pushes NTIA to follow the watchdog’s cost estimating and assessment guide and pursue independent cost estimates as it moves forward. 

The agency’s schedule for the modernization project hasn’t been completed, meanwhile, “because other activities were in progress” and “according to the Schedule Guide, the master schedule should include the entire required scope of effort,” NTIA officials told the GAO.

From a communications standpoint, NTIA officials said they’re working on a stakeholder management plan that would formalize their coordinating processes with other agencies. At the time of the GAO’s review, however, “NTIA had not finalized its stakeholder management plan or any documentation that demonstrates its policies and procedures for how it will facilitate coordination, including how frequently NTIA would hold meetings,” the watchdog said.

Finally, NTIA told the GAO that performance measures hadn’t yet been established because they were waiting for MITRE to finish its analysis of alternative project options, adding that there is no timeline for completing the assessment. 

“We acknowledge that pending NTIA’s selection and approval of a preferred alternative, the project’s acquisition strategy and implementation could vary,” the GAO stated. “However, knowing the project’s goals and what needs to be measured to achieve those goals should drive how NTIA implements the project.” 

The GAO delivered four recommendations to the NTIA, calling on the Office of Spectrum Management to address the deficiencies in cost estimates, scheduling, stakeholder management and performance measures for IT modernization. 

“Fully incorporating these practices — such as establishing performance measures to demonstrate progress and developing a schedule that includes the entire project — into NTIA’s activities could benefit the modernization effort as NTIA enters the next phases of this high-profile IT investment,” the GAO concluded.

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Of the nearly $80 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funds appropriated to the tax agency as a whole, $4.8 billion has been set aside for business systems modernization while another $25.3 billion is ticketed for operations support, which encompasses ops and maintenance for IT systems.  

But although the IRS has made some progress in its technology objectives — which include securing data, replacing outdated systems, updating programming languages and providing taxpayers with access to their data and online tools — the agency “hasn’t fully updated its plans to incorporate these additional funds” and is past due in making “changes to the scope and milestones of its IT modernization programs,” the GAO said.

The tax agency said it spent $3.3 billion on IT investments in fiscal year 2022 and $4.4 billion the following year, with roughly $2 billion in fiscal 2023 coming directly from IRA funds. The IRS had simultaneously been charged with completing a roadmap for how it would use the funding, but a December 2023 submission omitted the agency’s technology goals.

“They said that this objective would be included in version two of the roadmap which they expected would be completed very soon,” the GAO said. “Completing the roadmap and then updating ongoing IT modernization plans to reflect revisions driven by the strategic plan are essential to the transformation’s success.”

Previous reports from the congressional watchdog shined a light on myriad technical issues at the tax agency, including 2018 findings that legacy systems posed significant risks due to outdated hardware and a shortage of skilled IT staff. Subsequent reports tracked the IRS’s progress on its cloud computing efforts and its legacy modernization plans — both seen as crucial for an agency that in fiscal 2022 “relied on IT to collect more than $4.9 trillion in taxes, process approximately 260 million tax returns, and issue more than $640 billion in refunds and outlays,” the GAO noted.

The IRA-fueled technology objective, which includes eight initiatives and 38 key projects, so far lacks “the detailed planning needed to successfully operationalize” the agency’s strategic operation plan, GAO said. And without updating or developing new modernization plans that include milestones to complete the work, a description of the necessary work and “details regarding the disposition of the legacy system,” the IRS “runs the risk of cost overruns, schedule delays, and overall project failure.”

Furthermore, the quarterly IRS modernization progress reports delivered to Congress have lacked crucial data points, such as historical cost and schedule goals, the GAO stated. The agency did, however, meet almost all of its required analysis and performance targets for operational investments.

The GAO delivered three recommendations to the commissioner of the IRS: to finish the technology objective roadmap, complete modernization program plans and provide cost and schedule goals quarterly to Congress. 

The agency, which concurred with all three recommendations, said that work on the roadmap is “well underway,” but a time frame for when it would be completed was not provided.

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In an email acquired by FedScoop, GSA shared that it had updated the TMF’s repayment policy to reflect a new “consistent repayment floor with a minimum of 50% repayment,” with “rare exceptions” decided by the GSA administrator and OMB director.

An OMB spokesperson confirmed the update in an email to FedScoop. GSA didn’t respond to FedScoop’s request for comment.

The update is meant to continue allowing the fund to invest in technology and cybersecurity modernization for “years to come,” the email states, adding that it applies to all proposals submitted after Feb. 6.

The requirements reflect the Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act of 2023, introduced by Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va. in Sept. 2023. The bill would require agencies to adhere to the intent of the original bill that created the TMF in 2017 — the Modernizing Government Technology Act   — and hold agencies accountable for any funds issued to be “repaid or reimbursed to maintain solvency and ensure sustainability.”

“Due to the House Oversight Committee’s oversight and proposed legislation, the TMF has made structural changes that will limit wasteful spending, enhance efficiency and chart a path for a more successful and optimized future,” a House Oversight and Accountability Committee spokesman said in an email to FedScoop. “Congressional intent was to put money into this fund upfront and have it be a revolving fund that would be repayed [sic].”

The OMB spokesperson said the decision to relax repayment requirements was an important function to support the $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds appropriated to the TMF meant to “address urgent IT modernization challenges, bolster cybersecurity defenses and improve delivery of COVID-19 relief.”

“To meet the urgency of the moment, the TMF adapted its repayment policy to consider flexible repayment levels for projects that met certain criteria, including investments that produced significant positive impact or addressed critical security or capability gaps,” the OMB spokesperson said. “As the TMF Board allocates the last of the ARP funding, we are looking to the future of the TMF in a post-ARP setting – balancing congressional intent and agency flexibility to deliver the most impact for the American people.”

While both Mace and Connolly were pleased with the move to update the repayment policy, they expressed differing perspectives on how the Biden administration came to this arrangement. 

Mace told FedScoop a statement about this update: “Due to our relentless oversight and legislative work, the Biden Administration has made overdue and necessary changes to the TMF to better align the program with Congressional intent. This is what proper oversight of the federal government looks like and we will continue in our mandate to root out waste, fraud, and abuse within federal programs on behalf of the American people.”

Connolly, however, pointed to the updated repayment requirements as an example of the White House’s “commitment to the long-term health and sustainability of the TMF,” according to a statement from Connolly shared with FedScoop. 

“It is consistent with our bipartisan TMF reauthorization legislation which would encourage greater repayment for TMF projects,” Connolly said. “The Administration should be proud to receive much-deserved praise from both sides of the aisle for their commitment to protecting and enhancing the TMF. I look forward to continuing to secure transformative federal IT investments.”

The TMF also announced last week that it will start to accept applications regarding AI projects from federal agencies to further the advancement of the government’s deployment of technology.

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Previous projections for how IRA funding would impact the IRS’s revenue only took into account revenues that were directly connected to increased enforcement staffing. The new analysis added modernization investments — as well as information reporting for digital assets, enhanced services to boost voluntary compliance, advances in analytics to improve productivity and other activities — to the equation.

With the “diversified revenue strategies” assessed in the analysis, Treasury projects the IRS to take in $851 billion from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2034. Accounting for IT modernization, the report noted, reveals “a wide array of potential revenue benefits.” 

“Expanded data intake capacity and productivity will help increase compliance; improved audit selection and collection planning can increase the productivity of enforcement activities,” the report stated. “IT investments can also increase the productivity of auditors by providing them with better access to data during the audit process and allow for quicker and more efficient communication between auditors and taxpayers. 

“IT and customer experience investments can also facilitate voluntary compliance by making it easier for taxpayers to communicate with us, enabling taxpayers to complete more tasks online, reducing the demand for direct contact with customer service representatives and allowing us to process returns more quickly and efficiently,” it said.

The analysis noted specifically how investments in IT infrastructure will better position the IRS to handle IT-related outages. During the 2018 tax season, for example, a massive outage took the system offline for 11 hours, leading to processing delays for millions of returns. 

The Treasury highlighted California’s Enterprise Data to Revenue initiative as a case study in how the IRS’s modernization funding infusion could play out. The Golden State saw an approximate 1% increase in collections during the initial phase of its project, which a senior state official attributed mostly to “technical and process improvements that allowed for increased taxpayer self-service.”

If the 1% efficiency increase held for the IRS, the agency would be looking at an extra $43 billion annually, the report said.

While the potential is there for a significant revenue boon for the IRS, the analysis notes that the agency must be prepared for the downside to “the integration of technology in administration.”

“While it significantly enhances government capability to reduce tax evasion through enriched data access, it concurrently presents sophisticated taxpayers, particularly those with high incomes, with novel opportunities to evade taxes,” the report said. “Therefore, as we modernize our IT infrastructure, we must also devise strategies to close these new loopholes, ensuring that the digital transformation leads to a more equitable tax system.”

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The posting is part of a broader plan within the agency to improve upon its existing internal website, DOJNet, and create a new platform called Justice Hub, the posting stated. 

The new system is supposed to meet the principles established by the U.S. Web Design System and the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act. In addition to federated search capabilities, mobile-readiness and Section 508 accessibility compliance, the Justice Department also wants the system to use artificial intelligence to “tailor the user experience” and deliver “relevant content to each user.” 

An internal website for the agency, DOJNet is currently used by employees working at several sub agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Still, using the system has apparently become challenging.

“Since its launch, DOJNet has served as the Department’s primary intranet providing a centralized location for news and announcements, access to shared documents and databases, calendars and scheduling tools, and training resources,” the posting states. “However, the site has not been reimagined since 2015 and lacks the capabilities and functionality to encourage collaboration, foster productivity, and most importantly is not responsive on mobile devices.”

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A new video campaign featuring federal government agency leaders and Leidos executives highlights the steps agencies are taking to modernize their operations by embracing as-a-service models.

As-a-service models allow agencies to consume IT resources and services on demand without investing in and maintaining their own infrastructure. This can free up agency resources to focus on mission-critical initiatives, such as improving service delivery and citizen engagement.

Lexy Guenther, chief technologist at Leidos, discussed how Leidos enables NASA’s mission through effective IT services using an “as-a-service model.” Leidos provides, secures, manages and maintains essential IT services for over 60,000 end-users at NASA, allowing the agency to focus on mission-critical operations.

“We are a big proponent of using managed services; we’ve been using them for years at HRSA,” said Adriane Burton, the CIO of the Health Resources and Services Administration. She explained how adopting managed and cloud services enhances mission delivery in HRSA and how they have used shared services, cloud services and in-house solutions to meet IT needs. Using managed services and cloud platforms, especially platform-as-a-service has enabled HSA to deploy applications more quickly.

Mittal Desai, CIO of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, elaborated on FERC’s use of managed services, particularly for security, financial systems and back-office operations. “Receiving real-time security was also a benefit. And the rise of workplace flexibility, especially in the post-pandemic era, has highlighted the importance of mobility and mobile services. Accessing services independently from any location at any time has become crucial. The adoption of as-a-service models significantly contributed to supporting these objectives and enhancing the overall customer experience for our user base,” said Desai.

Federal Emergency Management Agency CTO Ted Okada shared insights into how FEMA prioritizes a “people-first” approach in enhancing disaster response efforts. He emphasized the importance of focusing on the needs of disaster survivors and nurturing a diverse and empathetic workforce. Okada also recognized the importance of new technologies, including AI, low-code and no-code solutions, which can improve disaster response efforts and aid workforce efficiency.

Deputy CIO Winston Beauchamp of the Department of the Air Force discussed the advantages of adopting an as-a-service model, particularly for IT helpdesk services. The Air Force’s geographically dispersed bases have traditionally relied on on-site support for IT issues. However, embracing an as-a-service approach has allowed them to automate tier one and tier zero helpdesk services, significantly reducing the need for on-site support.

As the federal government modernizes its IT systems and services, as-a-service models will likely play an increasingly important role in helping agencies achieve their modernization goals, improve their security posture, reduce IT costs and better focus on mission-critical tasks.

Hear more from the other participants in the video series, including:

• Karyn Runstrom, Acting CIO, Defense Logistics Agency
• Dave Lewis, SVP, Maritime, Leidos
• Seth Abrams, VP and CTO, Homeland Security Solutions, Leidos
• Steve Wallace, CTO, Defense Information Systems Agency  
• Jamie Wolff, CIO, National Nuclear Security Administration
• Simchah Suveyke-Bogin, Chief CX Officer, USDA

This video series was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and sponsored by Leidos.

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Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced the Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act of 2023 on Monday, largely revising and adding some additional requirements to the original Modernizing Government Technology Act, passed in 2017. 

The new bill would reauthorize the TMF through 2030 and authorize the addition of $50 million to the fund, according to the bill’s text. Under the original law, the fund is set to sunset in 2025.

The bill also looks to increase the effectiveness of TMF by creating new reporting requirements for the Federal CIO and agency CIOs, namely requiring them to create inventories of high-risk IT systems used across the government. The Federal CIO would be required to use those to create a priority list of systems most needed in modernization and report them to Congress.

Connolly said in an emailed comment that the bill is a “welcomed” demonstration of support for the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act and the fund.

“It follows the critical $1 billion appropriation Congress provided the TMF as part of the American Rescue Plan, which I was proud to fight for,” Connolly said. 

The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is expected to meet Wednesday morning for a markup of the bill.

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Speaking at the 2023 Service to the Citizen Awards ceremony Friday night, OMB’s Loren DeJonge Schulman highlighted a number of customer service-focused improvements federal agencies have made recently — like the Agriculture Department’s efforts to streamline paperwork for farmers and the IRS expanding its customer callback program — that “are very small steps that add up to an incredible amount” for the American public.

“They add up to a government that not only delivers but is working every day to make that delivery simple, seamless and secure,” said DeJonge Schulman, associate director for performance and personnel management at OMB. “These are the types of things that matter to Americans. They matter because they expect government to work. In a democracy, government should not be invisible. But it also shouldn’t be a burden.”

She continued: “Making forms work better, making websites work better, [reducing] the number of hours people spent on hold, that is an incredible moment for our democracy.”

“I think things like websites written in plain languages and simpler forms are the love language of democracy,” she said.

DeJonge Schulman said that OMB’s work with federal agencies that provide high-impact services to the American people has illuminated two things in recent years: The success of those services is very directly tied to “how often you hear from customers about their experience with services,” and agency leaders are essential to driving change in customer experience.

While that may seem obvious to most CX practitioners, she said, it’s led to a major transformation that’s underway in federal service delivery that can be tied back to major policy changes and additional commitment to making government more customer-friendly as part of its modernization agenda, such as prioritizing it in the President’s Management Agenda.

“Think about where you work your life in this customer experience world two years ago, five years ago, whenever you started,” DeJonge Schulman said. “It has changed so much. The work you’re doing has had so much impact. And so many people are speaking the language that you’re speaking right now. We have an incredible team amongst all of us.”

The 2023 Service to the Citizen Awards recognized dozens of federal CX personnel and teams from across government for their dedication to “excellence in delivering services that impact the public’s lives and rebuild trust in government.”

Among those honored, Alek Sripipatana, a director of data and evaluation with in the Health Resources and Services Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services​, was awarded the government executive of the year award. And, Raza Latif, CEO for NuAxis Innovations, won the award for industry executive of the year.

Wyatt Kash contributed to this report.

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