Ten federal programs named semifinalists for innovation award

Programs in 10 agencies, including two e-government initiatives and two Justice Department programs, are semifinalists for one of the most highly prized public service awards.

The ten are among 50 programs selected from all levels of government for the 18th annual Innovations in American Government Awards for creative thinking and results-driven goals.

Six programs will be selected to win $100,000 grants for their "novelty and uniqueness, effectiveness in addressing important problems, significance, and the potential for replication by other government entities" in the awards program.

Stephen Goldsmith, director of the program, which is administered by the Council for Excellence in Government and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the nominated programs are snapshots of what is right in American government.

The 50 semifinalists will be whittled down to 18 finalists in April; the six winning programs will be announced on July 27.

Three of the programs involve information sharing and two involve the centralization of government services.

The semifinalists from federal agencies are:

• The Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, a national volunteer program that collects personal accounts of wartime veterans and civilian service workers dating to World War I. More than 33,000 oral histories and memorabilia have been collected and are being made available through the project's Web site.
• The Veterans Affairs Department's Managing Violence in High-Risk Medical Patients program started by the Portland, Ore., VA Medical Center's manager of outpatient mental health. The program attempts to reduce patients' violent behavior toward health care providers. David Drummond created the program with a negligible budget and no central office. Since the program's development, all VA hospitals have been ordered to adopt the approach.
• The Justice Department's Global Data Model, an open source method for sharing information across many platforms. Started in 2000, it allows for information sharing between justice and public safety organizations around the country.
• The Justice Department's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory Program, a nationwide network of digital evidence laboratories run by the FBI and law enforcement agencies at all levels of government. By the end of the year, 13 laboratories will be available to more than 1,000 agencies in 15 states.
• The Health and Human Services Department's Grants.gov Web site, which is already the recipient of several awards. It unifies access to more than 900 grant programs from 26 grant-making agencies, and allows organizations to search and apply for more than $360 billion in federal grants online.
• The Environmental Protection Agency's Regulations.gov Web site, which centralizes the federal rulemaking process on the Internet and allows anyone to search and comment on proposed regulations.
• The Office of Management and Budget's Program Assessment Rating Tool, which measures the success and direction of all agency programs as part of the President's Management Agenda. More than 600 programs have been evaluated so far with the goal of completing the project in two years.
• The U.S. Agency for International Development's Global Development Alliance, which creates public-private groups to stimulate economic growth and address health and environmental issues in developing parts of the world.
• The Housing and Urban Development Department's HOME Investment Partnership Program, a block grant program that has helped low-income individuals and families in more than 700 communities find affordable housing. More than 802,000 affordable housing units have been created since 1992, including about 300,000 new homes, on an annual budget of about $2 billion.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Laboratory Response Network works together with 140 international, federal, military, state and local laboratories in testing for biological and chemical agents that are a threat to public health. In the event of a biological or chemical terrorism threat, similar to last week's anthrax scare, the program works to respond as one entity.