OMBlog

Shocking the System through IT Reform

Washington, DC has never suffered from a lack of ambitious plans and strategies to tackle tough challenges. The sticking point, often, is execution. This is why in December of 2010, when we launched the 25 Point Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, we committed to a focus on execution to tackle obstacles that get in the way of lasting reform.

From day one, this Administration has recognized how critical that type of reform is. By cutting waste in IT across the Federal portfolio, we’re not only saving taxpayer dollars, but also improving the overall function and efficiency of the government.

Over the last 18 months, the Administration has made great strides clearing obstacles in the way of reform, allowing agencies to leverage information technology to create a more efficient and effective Government. While the 25 points have not solved all Federal IT challenges, they addressed many of the most pressing, persistent challenges we face.  Most importantly, this plan established many wins that will drive our efforts well into the future.

For example, the 25 Point Plan addressed some of the basics around the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative.  These include dedicating a senior program manager in charge of consolidation at each agency, establishing an interagency Task Force to drive consolidation and sharing of best practices, and launching a government-wide marketplace to promote the availability of data center space to other Federal offices.  We also recognized there is more we can do, so we expanded our data center consolidation efforts, increasing our goal by 50 percent from the original set in 2010.

As of March, 267 data centers have been decommissioned across the Federal Government and by the end of 2012, we plan to have closed a total of 429. Additionally, on June 9, OMB and GSA will launch the data center marketplace inside government, which will help agencies better utilize spare capacity within operational data centers.

Yesterday, we launched the Initial Operating Capability of the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).  FedRAMP will enable agencies to have confidence that their data will remain safe and secure when they deploy a cloud solution – without requiring each agency to reinvent the wheel each time they choose to shift to the cloud.   

Under the 25 Point Plan we jumpstarted the adoption of cloud computing, shifting agency mindsets in the process.  Beginning in FY 2013, we expect cloud migrations to save agencies about $100 million a year, at that is for email alone. And while these savings are notable, cloud computing also enables agencies to improve service and produce business efficiencies that save even more.

On May 2, 2012, OMB published the Shared Services Strategy, which required agencies to identify IT services to migrate to a shared service model by the end of 2012. Agencies identified 60 initiatives, totaling $34 million in annual cost savings and avoidance. These are just the tip of the iceberg as it pertains to shared services.  Through the PortfolioStat process this summer, we will begin to see great results and incorporate these savings and reinvestments into the FY 2014 President’s budget.

In May 2011, OPM and OMB launched the IT Program Manager career path. Over the last year, agencies have designated over 1,000 IT Program Managers with the experience and know-how to hold agency and contractor staff accountable for substantial taxpayer investments. These individuals now manage major IT investments that for decades were plagued by mismanagement and poor governance.

Without question, TechStat has been one of the major successes of the IT Reform Plan. To date, agencies have held over 300 TechStats and trained over 1,500 employees in the process, exponentially growing the work that started two years ago. As we drive TechStat into the bureaus and components of agencies, we are seeing positive shifts in accountability and management.

The 25 Point Plan has without question served its purpose as a shock to the system. Prior to the plan’s launch, agencies were sporadically migrating to cloud solutions, major IT investments were managed by individuals with varying degrees of expertise and experience,  the acquisition process did not keep pace with the technology cycle, TechStat reviews were held only by OMB, and CIO authority within agencies was too often lacking.

Fast-forward 18 months and now cloud migration is no longer an aspiration but a reality across the government, all major investments are led by a dedicated program manager, contracting guidance to support modular IT development will better align acquisition and technology cycles, the Federal Government has achieved cost savings of over $4 billion as a result of the TechStat process, and a majority of CIOs have formal authority to review and approve the major IT investments in their agency portfolio.

We will continue to eliminate duplication wherever we find it and shift spending from the costly maintenance of outdated systems to more efficient technologies.By doing so, we can improve the delivery of mission critical services, as we work together with Congress to hold agency IT budgets in check and reduce the costs to the American people.

Steven VanRoekel is the Federal Chief Information Officer – for more information visit www.cio.gov.   

“Lookback” Progress

Ed Note: This post is updated with a correction on HUD borrower savings as those figures have not yet been finalized.

President Obama is committed to a regulatory approach that protects public safety and welfare while also promoting economic growth and job creation. In January 2011, the President issued a historic Executive Order, setting forth new cost-saving, burden-reducing requirements for federal regulations, and requiring an ambitious government-wide “lookback” at existing regulations. In response to that requirement, over two dozen agencies identified more than 500 reforms. Agencies have already proposed or finalized more than 100 of them.

On May 10, we announced a series of final rules that will save nearly $6 billion over the next five years. Other rules, now proposed or finalized, will produce billions of dollars in additional savings, producing total savings in excess of $10 billion from just a small fraction of the reform initiatives.

Also on May10, the President institutionalized his regulatory lookback with an historic Executive Order requiring federal agencies to continue to scrutinize rules on the books to see if they really make sense. That Executive Order takes three new steps. To promote priority-setting, the Order requires agencies to identify reforms that will produce significant quantifiable savings, especially (but not only) for small business. To promote accountability, the Order requires agencies to report to the public regularly on their past efforts and their future plans -- with details and deadlines. To promote public participation, the Order directs agencies to obtain public comments to see which rules should be simplified, improved or repealed.

On the Right Real Estate Track

In June 2010, President Obama set an ambitious goal for his Administration: to eliminate billions in real estate costs by consolidating or selling off excess Federal properties that are no longer needed. Today, OMB is proud to report that agencies have made significant strides toward meeting – and exceeding – the President’s goal.

As of the end of the first quarter of FY 2012, agencies have already achieved over $5.6 billion in real estate savings and are on track to exceed the President’s directive to save $8 billion by the end of this year – historic progress that will reduce costs and thereby make government more efficient and effective. The President’s directive included two parts: $5 billion in savings through the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) process, as well as $3 billion in non-BRAC savings. We are currently on track to exceed both of these goals, having achieved $3.25 billion in BRAC savings and $2.4 billion in non-BRAC savings to date.

The Federal Government is the largest property owner in the United States. But over time, agencies accumulated more properties than the Government needs to effectively meet its mission. That’s why from his first days in office, the President has made it a priority to eliminate wasteful spending on Federal real estate. At his direction, agencies have worked to reduce office space, encourage wider adoption of telework, provide alternate workspace configurations, reduce operating costs, and consolidate data centers. Through these efforts, agencies have generated millions of dollars in savings from selling or consolidating properties, on top of numerous examples of lease cancellations, improved space management, and reductions in operating costs that are driving greater returns for the taxpayer.

Continuing to Crack Down on Government Waste

One of the Federal government’s most fundamental responsibilities is to serve as a careful steward of taxpayer dollars – to make sure that every dollar is well-spent and directed toward areas of high return. That’s a responsibility this Administration takes seriously. From his first days in office, President Obama has led a concerted and aggressive effort to streamline government and cut wasteful and inefficient spending wherever it exists so that we can focus our resources on serving the American people. From slowing the uncontrolled growth of Federal contracting to getting rid of excess real estate held by agencies and reining in spending on Federal employee travel, this Administration has already cut billions in inefficient spending across the Federal government.

Today, we’re taking another important step forward in that effort. This afternoon, the Office of Management and Budget is issuing guidance to Federal agencies to take additional actions to increase efficiency and strengthen accountability in the areas of travel, conferences, real estate, and fleet management.

Reducing Red Tape: Regulatory Reform Goes International

Over the past year, the Federal Government has been working to implement President Obama’s directions for a 21st-century regulatory system, which he described in Executive Order 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.”  Executive Order 13563 requires U.S. regulators, to the extent permitted by law, to select approaches that maximize net benefits; choose the least burdensome alternative; increase public participation in the rulemaking process; design rules that are simpler and more flexible, and that provide freedom of choice; and base regulations on sound science. Executive Order 13563 also calls for an ambitious, government-wide “lookback” at existing rules, with the central goal of eliminating outdated requirements and unjustified costs.

Today, President Obama has built on Executive Order 13563 by signing a historic Executive Order on Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation.  The new Executive Order will promote American exports, economic growth, and job creation by helping to eliminate unnecessary regulatory differences between the United States and other countries and by making sure that we do not create new ones.  

As I discuss in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, the order makes clear that in eliminating such differences, we will respect domestic law and will not compromise U.S. priorities and prerogatives. Even while insisting on those priorities and prerogatives, we can eliminate pointless red tape. Today’s global economy relies on supply chains that cross national borders (sometimes more than once), and different regulatory requirements in different countries can significantly increase costs for companies doing business abroad. As the President’s Jobs Council recently noted, international regulatory cooperation canreduce these costs and help American businesses access foreign markets.  Such cooperation can also help U.S. regulators more effectively protect the environment and the health and safety of the American people. 

Job Training Cuts in the Republican Budget

Earlier today, President Obama visited Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio to highlight how federal job training funding is helping unemployed workers get the skills they need to compete for jobs in high-demand, high-growth industries.

In communities like Elyria all across the country, federal job training programs are helping meet a critical need. As manufacturing jobs have shifted from assembly-line positions to advanced manufacturing, schools like Lorain County Community College have partnered with non-profits, business, and government to develop job training programs that help equip dislocated workers with skills that match employer needs. Many of these programs depend on federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act, which supports employment services and training programs that serve millions of workers across the country each year.

And yet just a few weeks ago, House Republicans passed a budget resolution that would cut spending for these kinds of services by over 5 percent in 2013 and 19 percent in 2014 – all while showering families making more than $250,000 per year with over $1 trillion in tax cuts. It’s an approach that fails the basic test of balance, fairness, and shared responsibility, and it would be a devastating blow to struggling middle class families in communities like Elyria across the country. Check out this chart to see how your state would be affected by these cuts.

Martha Coven is Associate Director for Education, Income Maintenance, and Labor 

Do Not Pay Solution Open for Business

As Americans across the country prepare to file their taxes, the Administration today is launching a tool to help guard against wasteful and improper payments that squander taxpayer dollars. The new Do Not Pay tool will help Federal agencies avoid the types of payment errors that have plagued government for too long – including pension payments to the deceased and payments to contractors who have attempted to defraud the government.

Every year, the Federal government wastes tens of billions of dollars on payments to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason. When the President took office, the government-wide improper payment rate was on the rise, reaching an all-time high of nearly 5.5 percent in 2009. In response, he has taken swift and aggressive action to make improper payments a focus of the Administration’s Campaign to Cut Waste.

As a direct result of these efforts, we have begun to see real results. Last year, we announced that the government-wide improper payment rate decreased to 4.7 percent, a sharp drop from the 2009 error rate of 5.4 percent that helped prevent $20 billion in improper payments in 2010 and 2011 combined. In addition, we are announcing today that we have already exceeded the goal the President set in 2010 to recapture $2 billion in overpayments to contractors by the end of this fiscal year. The Administration surpassed this goal nearly 6 months ahead of schedule, due in large part to hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries from the Medicare Fee-for-Service Recovery Audit Contractor Program.

The JOBS Act: Encouraging Startups, Supporting Small Businesses

President Barack Obama signs the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which includes key initiatives the President proposed last fall to help small businesses and startups grow and create jobs, in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 5, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Earlier this week, I was back in my home state of Iowa talking with tech entrepreneurs about the Administration’s progress leveraging technology to innovate with less, improve transparency and efficiency, and better serve the American people. As fellow tech junkies, we spent plenty of time talking about Government’s role in open data, application programming interfaces to Federal systems and more. But we also had a chance to talk more broadly about the vital role start-ups and small businesses play in strengthening our economy, creating jobs, and nurturing innovation. 

President Obama recognizes the critical role these types of high-growth startups and innovative entrepreneurs play in creating an economy that’s built to last. That’s why back in the fall – and again in his State of the Union Address – the President put forward a series of specific proposals to ease regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from accessing the capital they need to grow and create jobs. Today, the President put many of those proposals to work when he signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act – a bipartisan bill that will help encourage startups and support our nation’s small businesses. 

As the President said at today’s signing, “this bill is a potential gamechanger” for America’s entrepreneurs. For the first time, Americans will be able to go online and invest in small businesses and entrepreneurs. Not only will this help small businesses and high-growth enterprises raise capital more efficiently, but it will also allow small and young firms to expand and hire faster.  

Safeguarding America’s Job Creating Innovations

For an economy built to last, President Obama has said that we must innovate, educate and build on our competitive strengths as a nation.  Protecting innovation is fundamental to our country’s competitiveness in the global economy. This is especially true at a time when job creation is among our most urgent tasks.  We must stop intellectual property theft and piracy which harm our businesses and threaten American jobs.

It’s been almost two years since the Administration issued the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement which set out 33 specific actions that we committed to undertake to improve intellectual property enforcement. These important steps will help protect both U.S. rightholders and American jobs. 

Today, I sent to Congress the second annual report outlining the significant progress we’ve made implementing the Strategy in 2011.  Some of the key highlights include: