Federal leaders call for e-government coordinator

Leaders from across government, industry and academia worked to chart the course for the future of electronic government in Washington last week, and called for an e-government czar to lead the way.

At the third meeting of the Council for Excellence in Government's E-Government Excellence Symposium on Thursday, participants continued work on a blueprint for the future of electronic government, which they intend to hand off to the next administration.

Participants agreed that the next administration should appoint a top-level advisor to the President on e-government issues. Such an advisor would push initiatives across departmental and agency boundaries in an effort to overhaul the existing structure of government.

The Democratic Leadership Council's Progressive Policy Institute has made similiar suggestions for a governmentwide e-government coordinator.

The time is ripe to capitalize on the issue, said Patricia McGinnis, president and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government. "Never before have presidential candidates given speeches on e-government," she said, referring to recent addresses by Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. "E-Government is not a partisan issue. Both candidates will embrace it."

The Council for Excellence in Government has retained the Hart-Teeter polling organization to conduct a survey on what the public views as the potential benefits of electronic government. The council expects to have the survey results by the end of August.