Legislation driving Bush administration e-gov efforts

Federal legislation has helped spur agencies to integrate technology into government services and has laid the groundwork for many of the Bush administration's e-government and homeland security initiatives, officials said Tuesday.

The 1998 Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) mandates that agencies must give citizens the option to submit information and conduct transactions electronically and gives legal weight to the use of electronic signatures. Agencies have until Oct. 21, 2003 to comply. The 2000 Government Information Security Reform Act (GISRA) mandated that all agencies conduct regular reviews of their security and information practices.

These two measures "have helped us quite a bit ... It's defined security in our daily lives," Mayi Canales, deputy chief information officer for the Treasury Department, said during a Council for Excellence in Government conference on e-government.

Federal lawmakers, agencies and industry groups have stressed the need to encourage information sharing among governments and industry and to work collaboratively to protect the nation's critical assets in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Kevin Landy, counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said such laws can pave the way for other federal e-government initiatives such as electronic signatures and information-security practices. He said the committee believes GISRA has been effective, although many agencies need to do more to protect their information systems. The committee also is probing how agencies are complying with GPEA.

"I think right now, the jury's still out on that," Landy said.

Landy said more congressional oversight of e-government initiatives may be needed, particularly when it comes to protecting information.

"There is no issue with anywhere near the priority level" in Congress than information security, Landy said. Congress "wants to support the administration's efforts as much as they can and work with them" on these issues.

Meanwhile, agency officials said they are hard at work implementing their respective parts of the administration's 24 e-government initiatives outlined in the President's Management Agenda.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is responsible for the "business compliance one-stop" portal, which is designed to help businesses find, understand and comply with federal regulations. SBA has been working with state groups such as the National Governors Association and National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for the disaster management e-government initiative, which will include a one-stop Web portal for disaster management services at all government levels.

Norman Lorentz, the federal government's chief technology officer, said, "To think we're going to be able to do e-government without a little pain" is not an accurate portrayal of the road ahead. "The problems that we have are profoundly not technological," but involve accountability and management issues, he said.

Lorentz said he has met numerous times with federal lawmakers who have asked him what he needs to execute the administration's technology initiatives. Extra legislation is not needed, he has told them, as long as Congress appropriates money and responsibilities cross-functionally to agencies to encourage cooperation.

"We don't need to reinvent these things," Lorentz said.