“Frankly, there aren’t enough places for agencies to go across government when they have technical questions or need technical help, so we get a huge array of requests,” USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang said in an interview with FedScoop.  

Those requests, many of which are detailed in the 2024 impact report USDS released Thursday, can’t all be addressed. Hsiang said USDS works to fulfill “over a quarter” of the agency requests for partnership, with consultation but not full engagement provided on approximately 10% of those asks. 

“We do a lot of work to contemplate the size of the population impacted, the vulnerability of the population impacted, the change it will have on the service and how critical the service is for people’s livelihood,” she said.

In its report, USDS outlined progress on 10 different projects across agencies, covering topics including digital service accessibility, building veteran trust, federal benefits for families and more. 

A closer look at USDS projects

In its partnership with the Social Security Administration, USDS worked with the agency to “observe customers” and learn how the public engaged with SSA’s website. According to the report, the project would save an estimated $285 million over five years for infrastructure expenses. 

The partnership with SSA has “created momentum to improve service delivery” through transforming the agency’s static homepage, the report noted, replacing “complicated” policy language with a conversational eligibility screener and building development infrastructure that involves a content management system and more.

The USDS is currently working with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of the Chief Technology Officer to develop software intended to improve the lives of veterans. In teaming with the agency on VA.gov, USDS aimed to build veterans’ trust in the VA. Per the report, veterans’ trust in the VA climbed from 70.4% in FY18 — the year of VA.gov’s relaunch — to 79.3% in FY23.

“The Veteran Experience Office does a very comprehensive work of engaging veterans and building an array of metrics together,” Hsiang said.

The impact report also touted USDS’s partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to help modernize and implement services that support an interagency Life Experience Research Team, aiming for “simpler, more accessible and equitable” digital experiences. Specifically, the organization conducted research with a nationwide group of participants, documenting their experiences throughout pregnancy and childbirth along with any relevant interactions with the federal government. 

Working with an HHS Life Experience Research Team that included  representatives from the General Services Administration, the Department of Labor, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and others, USDS piloted three digital programs to support families, including a text message service called Notify.gov that allows government partners to send texts about benefits and support programs to the public.

“This is one of those places where we can partner very closely with an agency that’s building out a shared capability for more folks and give them direct feedback,” Hsiang said. “The team had a very good experience with it.”

Though not listed in the impact report, the USDS also worked “extremely closely” with the IRS on the implementation of its Direct File pilot program. Hsiang said the partnership was not included in the report due to a timing issue, but noted that USDS assisted in technical expertise, user research, product management and more. Direct File was utilized by over 140,000 taxpayers in its inaugural run, according to the IRS. 

“This pilot is only with 12 states, but obviously there’s real opportunities for growth there because building out that capability so that folks in every state can have this option will be important,” Hsiang said. “The tax code is huge and incredibly complex, so there were almost 20 million people who were eligible for this pilot, but it will be important to expand that capability to encompass more individuals.”

A busy year followed by more to come from USDS

For Hsiang, who has led USDS since September 2021, the release of the impact report represents what she views as “a year of launching things.”

“There’s a lot of programs here that are a demonstration of incredible value in themselves, but also a proof of concept of a new model working,” Hsiang said. 

USDS is investing in hiring both internally and with agency partnerships, Hsiang said, in an effort to capitalize on momentum to build long-term capacity within agencies. She confirmed that the USDS is working to support agencies in hiring more talent, including as part of efforts called out in the White House’s artificial intelligence executive order.

“I think there’s a lot of interest, but the talent moves quickly, gets hired quickly, looks for competitive salaries and opportunities,” Hsiang said. “That will definitely be a challenge, but one we’re excited to take on.”

Hsiang said her hope for this report is a “clear illustration” of what government talent is able to accomplish, and stressed the importance of USDS’s investment in technology-centered work.

“I think the report starts to give a real detailed window into the range of different types of work that we do and the short- and long-term impacts that it can have,” Hsiang said. “One of the things that we hear across government regularly is that technology ends up slowing people down instead of speeding them up, if it’s not implemented right. That is not what anyone intends and that’s not what we’re investing for.”

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Testifying before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce, the agency officials touted increased rates of in-person work while also pushing for sustained telework flexibility to ensure continuity of services.

“Regardless of where our employees are located, they are working,” said Oren “Hank” McKnelly, executive counselor at the Social Security Administration. “Telework is not one size fits all.”

While many Democrats on the subcommittee made the case that operating under the specter of a government shutdown is an actual hindrance to agency outputs, several Republicans used their time to question whether telework compromised worker productivity. 

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., zeroed in on increased SSA processing and response times, which McKnelly attributed in part to “historic” attrition levels during the pandemic. 

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., meanwhile, prodded McKnelly on “unsatisfactory” services from “delinquent” SSA employees allowed to “sit on their sofas” and work from home. 

McKnelly responded that application and processing backlogs are due in part to underfunding, and the fact that SSA saw an “increase of over 8 million beneficiaries over the last 10 years. At the same time, we experienced the lowest work staffing levels at the end of FY22,” he said. “That’s a math problem.”

Other Republicans were slightly less bearish on telework among federal employees. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., mused that while remote work “certainly has its place” in the federal government, “as we approach the quantum era, you’re one step away from being replaced by AI.” 

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., said he “could be convinced” on telework’s benefits but that he wants “to make the case to the American taxpayer. It’s real easy to talk hypothetically and say we’ll be able to spend less money to get people into D.C., but that really doesn’t mean a whole lot unless we can quantify that.”

Jeremy Pelter, deputy assistant secretary for administration at the Commerce Department, pointed to a decrease in transit costs — particularly with regard to subsidized public transportation benefits for Washington-area workers — as one calculable cost-saving measure. And McKnelly noted that on SSA property alone, $60 million has been saved in lease cost avoidance over the past decade, with another $35 million projected over the next four years.

“I believe the hybrid work environment does allow us to optimize space,” he said. “And in certain cases, we can redirect those savings into serving more people.” 

USAID is better equipped to serve its global mission thanks to telework, according to Kathryn Stevens, the agency’s acting chief human capital officer. The international development agency has people working across time zones in 80 countries, she said. 

At the Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, the time it takes to hire new staff has decreased by 22 percent over the past year, noted Bob Leavitt, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary of human resources and chief human capital officer. Remote work has also enabled the agency to boost its hiring of military spouses by 39 percent.

“Even if their family moves to another duty station, we are able to sustain and retain that employee,” Leavitt said. “That is one way we are helping save military families and also employing and working with folks across the country where the talent is.” 

Chair Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said that subcommittee staff will send a letter to the four agency representatives in the next few days, asking for additional data and information on telework policies as requested by members. The agencies must respond within 15 days. 

In closing, Sessions said he’s in agreement with ranking member Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., that “the overwhelming view of effectiveness and efficiency should be how we’re looking at what the agencies are trying to do” when it comes to telework.

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As part of that process, the HHS’s Office of Chief Information Officer is looking for potential contractors that could identify capabilities and gaps related to zero trust in each operating division, develop and maintain a zero trust scorecard, and establish a zero-trust roadmap, among other things, according to the request for information posted to federal contracting website SAM.gov.

The information security office within the OCIO is currently conducting market research on the establishment and maintenance of a program management office support for zero trust, according to the solicitation, and is looking to get information from interested parties by Dec. 6.

“While a few [operating divisions] within HHS have Zero Trust Maturity (ZTM) plans in place, HHS is just beginning to align resources to a department wide Zero Trust Strategy,” according to the solicitation.

HHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The solicitation comes as agencies work to achieve the Biden administration’s standards to improve cybersecurity through governmentwide zero-trust security architecture by the end of fiscal year 2024. 

While the Biden administration issued a strategy for achieving those goals, efforts can vary by agency. For example, the Department of Commerce’s CIO Andre Mendes told FedScoop in July that the agency elected to have a department-wide rather than letting bureaus chart their own course. 

Although the department already has many of the skills and technologies required by Biden’s zero-trust architecture strategy, the solicitation said that “putting all the components together requires HHS to significantly upgrade governance and Information Technology (IT) management, and more deeply integrate teams and technologies.”

At least one agency is already establishing a zero-trust program management office. The Department of Education is getting funding under the General Services Administration’s Technology Modernization Fund to establish an “enterprise-wide program management office dedicated to zero trust,” according to the TMF website. 

The Department of Education awarded a contract to ShorePoint Inc. to provide program management office support.

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Trends with so-called “adverse events” are currently tracked at the area and facility level through IHS Safety Tracking and Response — a web-based system that was implemented in 2020 — but location-specific information on those trends isn’t included in reports for IHS headquarters, the Government Accountability Office said in a Monday report. 

Absence of that location-specific information means headquarters “cannot effectively prioritize attention and resources or disseminate best practices, creating the potential for disparities in patient care based on location,” the GAO said. 

Over a two-year period, more than 27,000 adverse events were recorded by IHS, which provides care to roughly 2.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the report. The agency’s definition of adverse events includes giving a patient incorrect medication or a missed diagnosis.

The GAO recommended that the agency review and compare adverse event data for each of its geographic areas, at minimum, and distribute best practices in response to trends as needed. The Department of Health and Human Services, which IHS is part of, agreed with those recommendations.

The watchdog noted “longstanding questions about patient care quality and safety at federally operated IHS facilities.” In 2017, for example, the watchdog found that facilities operated by IHS reported adverse events inconsistently.

The GAO said it conducted the investigation to review the agency’s use of “information technology systems to manage patient care and monitor adverse events.” Those IT systems, the GAO said, can be used to monitor the quality of care for the populations IHS serves, which are affected disproportionately by certain health conditions.

In addition to agreeing with the recommendations, HHS also said the agency will produce a quarterly report provided to IHS leadership with national and area-level data it will use to address issues as needed.

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In a report issued Monday, the watchdog recommended that the agency’s Office of Civil Rights set up a process to assess the ease with which entities like health plans and health care providers can disclose potential cybersecurity incidents to the federal government.

“[Office of civil rights] OCR has not provided a formal method for covered entities and business associates to provide feedback to about the breach reporting and investigations processes,” said GAO. It added: “Addressing this shortcoming will be an important step toward improving or simplifying aspects of the breach and investigations process and preventing long lapses of communication during ongoing breach reporting investigations.

The pace of information sharing between the private sector and government in the aftermath of a cyberattack remains a concern for federal oversight bodies. In January, an in-depth GAO report pointed to difficulties with information sharing between the government and private sector following the SolarWinds cyberattack in late 2020, as well as problems with interagency communications.

“[A] Senior Technical Director from CISA’s cybersecurity division told us that sharing data received from law enforcement with other agencies and the private sector was challenging,” the report said at the time.

HHS sets and enforces standards for protecting electronic health information, as part of which its office of civil rights enforces Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy, security and breach notification rules.

Under the agency’s investigatory authority, the office of civil rights probes and records details of potential cybersecurity breaches.

In March, the president signed into law legislation that would require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within 72 hours, when they have suffered a major hack.  

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