Though Freedom of Information Act requests to the tax agency can still be filed through FOIA.gov, the mail, by fax, or even in person, the IRS’s decision to point online filers to ID.me — whose facial verification technology has, in the past, drawn scrutiny from Congress — has raised some advocates’ eyebrows

Alex Howard, who directs the Digital Democracy Project and also serves on the FOIA Advisory Committee hosted out of the National Archives, said in an email to FedScoop that language on the IRS website seems to encourage ID.me use for faster service. It also doesn’t make significant references to FOIA.gov, a separate governmentwide portal that agencies are supposed to work with by law, he said. 

“While modernizing authentication systems for online portals is not inherently problematic, adding such a layer to exercising the right to request records under the FOIA is overreach at best and a violation of our fundamental human right to access information at worst, given the potential challenges doing so poses,” Howard said. 

The IRS defended its use of the service in responses to FedScoop questions, noting the other ways people can file FOIA requests and that the tool is only required of those seeking to interact with their public records electronically. The agency also said that ID.me follows National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines for credential authentication services.

“The sole purpose of ID.me is to act as a Credential Service Provider that authenticates a user interested in using the IRS FOIA Portal to submit a FOIA request and receive responsive documents,” a spokesperson for the agency said. “The data collected by ID.me has nothing to do with the processing of a FOIA request.”

The IRS website currently directs people trying to access the agency’s online FOIA portal to use ID.me, which describes itself as a “digital passport” that “simplifies how individuals prove and share their identity online.” According to one IRS page, the “IRS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Public Access Portal now uses a sign-on system that requires identity verification.” Those hoping to access online FOIA portal accounts created before June 2023 also must register for ID.me, the site states. 

The ID.me login page directs users to the FOIA portal, stating that those who can’t verify their identity can try visiting the ID.me help page or pursue alternative options. From there, another page tells users to try “another method” for submitting a FOIA. 

The system requires users to upload a picture of their ID: They can choose between taking a selfie and using biometric facial verification software that compares the image to their ID — or wait for a video appointment to confirm their identity. 

The system also appears to prompt users to share their Social Security number and includes terms of service that discuss the handling of biometric data. Two FedScoop reporters tried registering with the system: one had their expired identification rejected and had to attempt again with a passport, while the other’s driver’s license could not be “read” the first time but was accepted during a second attempt in combination with the video selfie. Both FedScoop reporters later received a letter, by mail, notifying them that their personal information was used to access an IRS service using ID.me.

What an ID.me scan looks like when signing into the IRS’s FOIA portal.

The IRS spokesperson said that the collection of a Social Security number is related to the digital authentication process, not the processing of the FOIA request itself, and biometric information is not retained by the IRS. 

“The IRS requires ID.me to delete the selfie and biometric information within 24 hours for taxpayers who verify using the self-service process,” the spokesperson said, adding that “ID.me is also required to delete any video chat recording within 30 days for taxpayers who choose to verify using the video chat pathway.” 

An ID.me spokesperson said in an email to FedScoop that no state or local agency uses the system for identity verification or as authentication for FOIA portals.  

The FOIA portals for the Treasury Department and Social Security Administration do use ID.me, the company spokesperson noted, but both agencies seem to provide more information on alternative submission options to submit requests online. ID.me referred additional questions regarding the IRS’s use of the company’s FOIA portal to the tax agency. Treasury did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

The Social Security Administration offers both ID.me and Login.gov — another government-run ID service — as options to log into its FOIA portal, FOIAXPress Public Access Link. Like the IRS, the SSA said in response to FedScoop questions that mail, fax, email and FOIA.gov are alternatives to filing FOIAs. A Social Security number is not required for accessing FOIAXpress, though it appears to be required for signing into ID.me, which some users might be using to file FOIA requests. 

“In the scenario where a customer uses their ID.me account to access FOIAXpress PAL, the customer selects this sign in option on the login page and is redirected to a webpage on ID.me’s website,” an agency spokesperson said. “If the customer creates an account in this session, ID.me retains info on the registration event in their records.

They continued: “Upon successful account creation, the user is routed back to SSA’s website and allowed access to FOIAXpress PAL. SSA and ID.me retain info on the transaction in our respective records.”

“Submitting a Social Security Number to ID.me is related to the digital identity authentication process; generally it is not required for the FOIA process,” the IRS spokesperson added. 

Albert Fox Cahn, a privacy-focused attorney who directs the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, expressed concerns about the IRS’s use of ID.me. “This isn’t just creepy and discriminatory, it might break federal law,” he said in a statement to FedScoop. “Under FOIA, public records belong to the public, and no one should have to hand over their biometric data just to see the records they’re entitled to access.” 

The use of ID.me by the government has sparked concerns in the past. In 2022, some members of Congress accused the company of downplaying wait times and misleading people about the way its facial recognition technology worked. The company, meanwhile, has defended its practices, including its work on fighting fraud during the pandemic.

Matt Bracken contributed to this article.

This story was updated June 11, 2024, to update Alex Howard’s professional affiliation.

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“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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The new government website evaluation tool, which is called “gov metadata,” was created by Luke Fretwell and his son, Elias, as part of the Civic Hacking Agency, a project focused on technology for the public good. The system works by scanning government websites and then analyzing the presence of metatags, which can help search engines and other portions of the web to interpret aspects of an online page. A metatag might be a reference to a title or help boost a page’s presence on social media; based on the number of metatags present, the project gives a “score” to each website. 

The point of the project, Fretwell told FedScoop, was to show how well the government was performing on certain important aspects of web page operations. “When it comes to AI, and metadata and data, and customer experience and digital service — these three elements of it — there’s some fundamental things,” he said. (Editor’s note: Fretwell helped establish FedScoop’s digital and editorial operations in its early years, but he is not a current employee of Scoop News Group). 

The stakes can be high, notes Beau Woods, the founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company Stratigos Security. “If a website doesn’t set [metadata tags] up, or doesn’t set them up correctly, it can leave citizens wondering what the site is about [and] which one is the legitimate site,” he said. “It leaves room for other unofficial websites to go to the top of search rankings, and to be the first stop for the citizens when they’re browsing.” 

The U.S. government appears to be on par with other organizations, like academic institutions and nonprofits, that have limited budgets for IT and competing priorities, Woods added.  Importantly, the project wasn’t able to grade websites that its systems couldn’t properly scan.

According to the gov metadata tracker, federal agencies vary widely in how well they’re performing on metatags. Notably, a digital changelog established by the project shows that some government webpages were incorporating new metadata amid FedScoop’s reporting. 

An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told FedScoop that the agency is working with implementation partners and relevant interagency bodies to expand “best practices on search engine optimization and the use of metadata.” 

“The use of metadata and other related search engine optimization practices plays an important role in ensuring that members of the public can easily discover government information and services via third-party search engines,” the spokesperson said. ”OMB acknowledges the opportunity for agencies to more consistently use metadata as they continually optimize their websites and web content for search. OMB, alongside key implementation partners, continues to support agencies in this and other related efforts to improve digital experiences.” 

Still, Fretwell says the initiative raises the question of what requirements exist around this aspect of federal website upkeep. “What’s the standard that the government is going to adopt for using metadata and actually using it [and] using those things?” Fretwell said in an interview with FedScoop. “Because it’s so varied.”

FedScoop was unable to identify specific metadata tag requirements for federal websites, but the topic has certainly been referenced before. Older government documents, including a 2016 memo focused on federal agency websites and digital services and a 2015 memo for .gov domains, have generally emphasized the importance of search engine optimization or metatags. Digital.gov mentions that standard metadata should be tagged and Search.gov, a government search engine, has metadata recommendations, too.

A memo issued by the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer last fall — which provided further guidance for following the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act and improving government websites — points to metadata several times. The memo says that agencies should use “rich, descriptive metadata” and use “descriptive metadata in commonly parsed fields” like “meta element tags.” It also states that agencies should use metadata tags to correctly note the timeliness of a page. The OMB spokesperson pointed to this memo and its emphasis on search optimization.

Though the scanner run by the Civic Hacking Agency appears to have a broader scope, a website scanning tool run by the General Services Administration designed to measure performance of federal websites picks up some aspects of website metadata. (The GSA explains in its GitHub documentation that it focuses on collecting data that is helpful to specific stakeholders). 

That GSA initiative also shows varied performance — for example, whether an agency is using a viewport tag, which helps resize pages so they’re more easily viewable on mobile devices. 

“GSA continues to prioritize SEO and accessibility best practices when curating and improving metadata,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. In reference to the 2023 OMB memo, the spokesperson noted that GSA “continues to work with its web teams to optimize our content for findability and discoverability” and “focuses on metadata as well as things like improved on-site search, information architecture, user experience design, cross references, etc.” 

“Search.gov recommends metadata that supports foundational SEO techniques as well as our metadata-driven search filtering feature,” the GSA spokesperson added. 

In response to questions, the Federal Chief Data Officers Council said that while it had explored implications of metadata through its data inventory working group, the group hadn’t “targeted federal website metadata specifically.” The CDO Council added that it has yet to review the Civic Hacking Agency’s report. 

Agencies respond 

In response to FedScoop questions, several Chief Financial Officers Act agencies said they’ve investigated or will take steps to improve their metadata practices. A State Department spokesperson said the agency was “pleased” with some of its primary page grades but would also review the findings from the project, while the Environmental Protection Agency said that, after reviewing its score, it fixed all of the metadata issues identified.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also added its missing metatags to its site templates after FedScoop reached out.

Similarly, a spokesperson for the National Science Foundation said that it would meet metatag requirements “in the near future,” that missing tags will be tracked and incorporated into upcoming releases, and that the agency was assessing its compliance with Dublin Core and Open Graph standards, two specific types of metatags. 

The Agriculture Department said it would research whether its metadata were being pulled correctly. The agency also said it was updating its metadata creation process, including evaluating the accuracy of automatically generated tokens and updating its page creation workflow to emphasize page metadata. 

“We’re considering a cyclical review process for existing content to ensure metadata stays current with page updates. These changes will be passed down to all USDA website owners who manage their own content and we will coordinate with them to ensure the correct processes are in place,” an agency spokesperson told FedScoop. “The nature of our content management system is to not use XML content formats which impedes metadata from being included for each page. We are working to repair this process.” 

Some agencies pushed back on the findings. Terrence Hayes, press secretary at the  Department of Veterans Affairs, said it wasn’t apparent why certain metatags were chosen by the project, or which of the agency’s thousands of pages were being scanned, but added that the department was “reviewing the findings from the referenced report to better understand where gaps may exist.” 

Similarly, the Social Security Administration — which initially received an F — said some of the metatag issues identified were unnecessary but would implement changes to improve its score and meet Search.gov guidelines. (After a new scan by the site, the agency now has an A.)

Darren Lutz, press secretary for the agency, said that it instituted a new content management system for Social Security’s primary customer-facing pages and that each “new section or page that we launch features meticulously crafted metatags that summarize the content in clear, accessible language, ensuring optimization for search engines.”

“All new content will convey the noted metadata improvements,” Lutz added. “In the past year, we have launched four major new site sections, redirecting significant percentages of public web traffic from our legacy implementation to these modern and optimized web pages on our new platform.”

The Education Department — which has several websites managed by different entities — said that Civic Hacking Agency’s scores for its Ed.gov and G5 domains don’t reflect work being done on those sites, but also pushed back on how the tool evaluated its StudentAid.gov site, pointing to, for example, the description and robots field. While the Education Department acknowledged that some tags should be added to its NationsReportCard.gov page, a spokesperson said the tool was picking up archival pages and “content tagging isn’t feasible” for certain types of applications on that site. 

The Education Department plans to launch a new Ed.gov this coming summer, an agency spokesperson added. Meanwhile, its G5 domain for grant management “will be upgraded to significantly improve its usability, analytics and reporting, using machine-readable metadata and searchable content,” the spokesperson said. 

Several agencies, including the Departments of Commerce and Transportation, did not respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile, some agencies, like NASA, celebrated the scores they received. Notably, the space agency last year launched two new major websites: nasa.gov and science.nasa.gov. The agency has also been engaged in a multi-year web modernization project. 

“One of the driving goals of this major effort has been to improve the findability and search engine authority of these core sites through strong metadata tooling and training, and we believe this contributed to our report card score,” said Jennifer Dooren, the deputy news chief at NASA headquarters. 

Overall, the project appears to provide further incentive to improve site metadata. Several agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor, noted the importance of the Civic Hacking Agency’s tool. 

“The feedback from the ‘gov metadata’ scoring system is invaluable to us as it helps gauge our performance in implementing basic metadata principles,” said Ryan Honick, a public affairs specialist at the Department of Labor. “It acts as a catalyst for ongoing improvement, driving us to refine our strategies for making our websites as accessible and user-friendly as possible.” 

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With an annual spend of more than $100 billion on IT products, the federal government is falling short on the consistent tracking of its software licenses, leading to missed opportunities for cost reductions, the GAO found. And though there are federal initiatives in place to “better position agencies to maximize cost savings when purchasing software licenses,” the GAO noted that “selected agencies have not fully determined over- or under-purchasing of their five most widely used software licenses.”

The GAO’s study looked at software licenses purchased by the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies, finding that 10 vendors made up the majority of the most widely used licenses. For fiscal year 2021, Microsoft held by far the largest share of vendors organized by the highest amounts paid (31.3%), followed by Adobe (10.43%) and Salesforce (8.7%).

While the GAO was able to identify and analyze vendors based on government spend, it was “unclear which products under those licenses are most widely used because of agencies’ inconsistent and incomplete data,” the report noted. “For example, multiple software products may be bundled into a single license with a vendor, and agencies may not have usage data for each product individually.”

“Without better data, agencies also don’t know whether they have the right number of licenses for their needs,” the report continued.

For their recommendations, the GAO focused on nine agencies based on the size of their IT budgets and then zeroed in on the five most widely used licenses within those agencies. The selected agencies were the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, State and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Office of Personnel Management, Social Security Administration and USAID.

The recommendations centered most on better and more consistent inventory tracking to ensure that agencies didn’t double-dip on software license purchases and were in a better position to take advantage of cost-saving opportunities. There should be more concerted efforts to compare prices, the GAO stated.

HUD did not say whether it agreed or disagreed with the GAO’s recommendations, while the other eight agencies said in responses that they did.

Congress in 2023 attempted to rein in duplicative software across the government with the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act, which aimed to consolidate federal software purchasing and give agencies greater ability to push back on restrictive software licensing. However, after passing the House in July, the bill never moved in the Senate.

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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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The agency’s block of these third-party tools was disclosed earlier this month in a management advisory report for this fiscal year, published by the SSA’s inspector general office. The report noted that the decision was made to protect personally identifiable information, along with health, sensitive and other non-public information, that risked being shared through the use of the technology. 

The Social Security Administration said the block was a precautionary measure and that the agency has yet to use generative AI. When asked if the ban applies to agency laptops and mobile devices, a spokesperson said the block “is designed to be agency-wide.” 

“The temporary block was a necessary precaution to ensure the agency’s data and systems remained secure while we plan for future endeavors,” Darren Lutz, an SSA spokesperson, said in an email to FedScoop. “The agency continually assesses potential endeavors including potentials for AI modernization.”

The move comes as agencies wrestle with how to approach the technology. Some agencies, like NASA and the Department of Energy, are interested in testing generative AI in a secure environment. The State Department has considered using the technology for contract writing, and the Justice Department has weighed using these kinds of tools to improve its IT service desk. 

A recent executive order on artificial intelligence discouraged agencies from issuing “broad general bans or blocks” on generative AI. Instead, agencies are supposed to conduct more tailored risk assessments and create guidelines for the technology, among other measures to prevent misuse of federal government information. 

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Though some federal agencies previously had CAIOs, the Biden administration’s recent executive order on AI requires many federal agencies to name an official to the position. Agencies are expected to share the name of their CAIOs with the Office of Management of Budget 60 days after it finalizes guidance for government use of technology. A draft version of that guidance was released earlier this month. 

In response to FedScoop reporting, several agencies — including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Education Department — have announced who they’ve appointed to the role. 

While some agencies, like the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, have brought their responsible AI officials into the new CAIO role, others have selected their top data and technology leaders. FedScoop is tracking those appointed to the role of CAIO, as well as those previously appointed to the role of responsible AI official, at Chief Financial Officer Act agencies.

Notably, the SSA is already using several forms of artificial intelligence, according to an agency inventory. 

Madison Alder contributed to this article. 

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In a quarterly update on progress with the President’s Management Agenda, the Office of Management and Budget set out details of the two programs, which are intended to advance the Biden administration’s customer experience agenda.

Details of the two projects come after the White House in March launched nine “life experience projects” that are intended to improve citizens’ access to government websites and services through human-centered design.

To streamline access to Medicare for citizens over the age of 65, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services are working to improve the experience of accessing content and information on the SSA.gov and Medicare.gov websites. In order to do this, the agencies are conducting user research to inform the design of user website journeys and work to reduce the time it takes for applications to be approved.

As part of the second project on disaster assistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and HHS are working to streamline the individual assistance regulation process that citizens must complete when disaster strikes, along with SBA’s disaster loan application.

Key deliverables that the agencies are looking to complete for this project during 2023 include updating relevant computer matching agreements to ensure FEMA and SBA can share data about citizens’ applications, building a new disasterassistance.gov intake application process, and establishing a new disaster loan application process for disaster survivors on mySBA.gov.

Each quarter, OMB issues an update on progress made with the President’s Management Agenda, which is used by IT leaders and other C-suite executives at federal departments to help set key strategic priorities.

The final draft of the Biden administration’s PMA, which was published in September, centered on helping agencies undertake cross-agency projects to improve American citizens’ experience of government services during pivotal life moments.

Recent projects announced as part of this program, for example, include building a trauma-informed care approach for natural disasters, providing newborn supplies and text message-based updates about critical services for low-income families with young children, and a new digital pathway for helping service members to find individualized support.

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In its budget request, the White House appears to be focused on supporting federal agencies with pressing IT modernization needs and those that provide critical federal services in need of improved customer experience, according to budget documents released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

“The Administration is focused on understanding where agencies are on their IT modernization journeys and making intentional investments at the right time to enable secure technology and innovation to advance from year to year,” the budget request explains.

Here are some of the highlights of major federal IT spending requested in Biden’s budget for 2024:

• $6.4 billion — $619 million above the 2023 enacted level — for the VA’s Office of Information Technology (IT) to continue upgrades to VA IT systems;
• $1.9 billion to continue modernizing the VA’s problem-ridden electronic health record (EHR) system to ensure veterans “receive world-class healthcare well into the future;”

• $3.1 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), an increase of $145 million compared to last year. That includes $98 million to implement the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act and $425 million to improve internal cybersecurity and analytical capabilities;
• $1.4 billion — a 10% increase from the 2023 enacted level — for Social Security Administration (SSA) IT system modernization and to invest in staff and other improvements at the SSA;

• $119 million to support GSA in continuing its work implementing priority digital programs such as the US Web Design System, Digital Analytics Program, Digital.gov, and Search.gov;

• $6.6 million for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to modernize federal retirement services including expanding a pilot for online retirement applications and beginning to fund additional IT modernization initiatives akin to a case management system;

• $11 million for the Department of Health and Human Services to test ways to improve access to benefits for people facing financial shock by improving underlying eligibility data services and systems. It also requests $9 million for HHS and SSA to jointly pilot efforts to improve the Medicare enrollment experience; and

• $1 million for the United States Forest Service to pilot increased access to digital maps of Federal lands on Recreation.gov.

The White House said that the 2024 budget request also aims to tap into the strengths of cutting-edge technologies like digital identity and artificial intelligence (AI) while restructuring the security capabilities of software and cloud services used by the federal government. 

“The Administration is leading on the technology issues of the day, taking concrete steps to protect the Nation’s Federal systems from compromises, leveraging the benefits of digital identity and artificial intelligence while balancing risk, redefining security expectations for software and the cloud, and maximizing the impact of taxpayer dollars to deliver a better customer experience for the American people,” the budget request explained.  

Notably, Biden’s budget also proposes boosting cybersecurity-focused programs across a range of other federal agencies as well.

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The General Services Administration, which houses the TMF program office, announced Friday it awarded $23.3 million to the Social Security Administration to accelerate the implementation of multi-factor authentication.

The TMF team also awarded the Treasury $11.1 million to improve the reliability and security of its Treasury Foreign Intelligence Network system — a critical U.S. government system used to share classified information with other agencies and bureaus — as well as $6.2 million to the U.S. Agency for Global Media to speed the adoption of a zero-trust architecture.

It is the latest funding round to come from the GSA-managed fund since it announced a pair of investments focused on improving customer experience at U.S. Agency for International Development and the Railroad Retirement Board.

Prior investments include $1.8 million provided to the U.S. AbilityOne Commission to update a procurement management system, and a combined $20.8 million awarded in October to the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Army.

“Cybersecurity is the great enabler of IT modernization,” TMF Board Chair and Federal CIO Clare Martorana said in a statement. “When we help agencies launch technology that is secure by design, they’re able to drive transformation across products and services to improve the digital experience and maximize investments.”

TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung said: “With these new cybersecurity investments, TMF funding will increase the security of some of the nation’s most critical systems and sensitive data.”

Correction, 2/21/22: This article was updated to clarify details of the TMF’s latest investment projects.

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