Information Technology and Government - The Federal Government And Internet Technologies

Since the early 1990s, hundreds of federal government Web sites have sprung up on the Internet. In the beginning, each agency or division developed its Web site in a unique way, offering varying levels of accessibility to the user. Some were useful and informative. For instance, in 1994, the U.S. Census Bureau launched the first U.S. government World Wide Web portal. From the start, hundreds of U.S. Census records from decades past could be easily viewed on the Web site. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also maintained a useful site. In 1997 the IRS allowed people to download tax forms and file their taxes electronically. Nearly one million tax returns were filed from home computers in 1997. However, many other government Web sites, such as many of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Web sites, offered citizens very little in the way of practical information or accessibility. Overall, by the late 1990s, profit-driven commercial Web sites far outshone government Web sites in terms of both appearance and functionality. Seeing the untapped potential of numerous government Web sites, the Congress and the White House put through a series of initiatives and laws to make federal government Web sites and services more accessible to the American people.

Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)

One of the first major Congressional acts designed to improve the functionality of government Web sites was the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) of 1998. GPEA required that by October 2003 each government agency should provide people, wherever possible, with the option of submitting information or transacting business electronically. The act mandated that forms and documents involved in government transactions be placed online and that electronic signature systems be put in place to replace paper signatures. Companies, for instance, that made electronic components for NASA projects would have the option to bid for NASA contracts, complete all paperwork with regard to sale of the merchandise, and receive payment without having to use paper. Similarly, individuals would have the option to apply for a patent online or to fill out a U.S. Census survey on the Internet.

FedForms.gov

FedForms.gov (www.fedforms.gov) was created as a portal to all electronic forms available from all federal government agencies. Table 7.7, published by the White House Office of Budget and Management, shows the percentage of government transactions that were compliant to GPEA standards as of the October 2003 deadline. Though over half (56%) of government transactions could be performed electronically, roughly one-tenth (12%) of transactions for one reason or another did not meet the deadline and were expected to be completed after 2003. A

TABLE 7.7

Compliance of government agencies to the Government Paper Elimination Act (GPEA), December 2003
	Percentage	Number of transactions
*Agencies provided an expected date of completion of 2004 and beyond
SOURCE: "Table 1. Summary of Federal Government Compliance," in FY 2003 Report to Congress on Implementation of the E-Government Act, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States, March 8, 2004, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/downloads/2003egov_report.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004)
Transactions compliant as of October 21, 2003	56%	4,040
Transactions compliant after October 21, 2003*	12%	898
Transactions that will not be completed	32%	2,249
Total transactions reported		7,187

full 32% of government transactions, however, were not deemed suitable for electronic transactions. These included transactions such as customs forms, which are typically filled out in paper on an airplane approaching a U.S. airport, on a ship as it nears a U.S. port, or at an entry point along the border with Canada or Mexico.

E-government Act of 2002

In 2001 President Bush initiated the President's Management Agenda, which contained a number of initiatives intended to expand the role of the Internet in the federal government beyond the scope of GPEA. Many of these initiatives were made law in 2002 when the Congress passed the E-government Act of 2002. The E-government Act was a broad-reaching act designed to streamline government Web sites and to provide a wide range of services to the American people via the Internet. The act established an E-government Fund to provide money for agencies that could not afford Information Technology (IT) and Web site development. According to the FY 2003 Report to Congress on Implementation of the E-government Act (Washington, DC: Office of Management and Budget, March 8, 2004), for instance, $200,000 of the fund was given to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2003 to set up DisasterHelp.gov—a Web site that provided local, state, and federal emergency managers with disaster management information. The E-government Act also created the Office of Electronic Government (led by an administrator appointed by the president) and the Chief Information Officers Council, which was to be made up of all the Chief Information Officers from the major government agencies. (Chief information officers generally over-see Web development in a government agency.) The council and the e-government administrator were to ensure that the various agencies complied with the goals and provisions of the act.

Many of these goals and provisions established standards for government Web sites that were already in operation. Existing government Web sites were required to provide links to organization policy and hierarchy on the front page and to present their information in a way that was easily searchable. Many agencies with multiple Web sites, such as NASA or the Environmental Protection Agency, were asked to consolidate their sites so that all the information for the public could be reached within a few clicks of the agency's main page. The E-government Act also supported new Web sites designed to provide basic services for American citizens. The FirstGov.gov (www.firstgov.gov) site was deemed the official portal for all federal government Web sites. Firstgov.gov provided links to more than 22,000 federal Web sites and state Web sites as well as a hierarchical index of all government organizations, according to an April 2003 White House report entitled E-government Strategy. In 2003 the site averaged over sixteen million page views per month from 5.5 million Internet users. Another Web site that the E-government Act officially authorized was Regulations.gov (www.regulations.gov), which was launched in January 2003. Regulations.gov lists pending regulations proposed by government agencies and allows citizens and non-governmental agencies to comment on the regulations. According to the E-government Act, the government agencies review the comments on Regulations.gov before putting a regulation into effect, effectively providing the American people with the ability to influence government regulation—a privilege previously reserved largely for lobbyists.

As a result of these White House initiatives and Congressional acts supporting e-government, federal agencies have come to offer many valuable online services to Americans. In 2002, for instance, the Department of Education made it possible for parents and students to apply online for a majority of the college grants and loans offered by the Department of Education. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) erected a number of Internet kiosks throughout cities across the United States where those in need of affordable housing could access the HUD database to find federally owned homes to buy. In 2003 nearly 300,000 people used such kiosks, according to the FY 2003 Report to Congress on Implementation of the E-government Act. Information technology has also been used to save citizens money and to protect Americans against possible terrorist threats. The Department of Homeland Security implemented the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) in 2002. The system keeps track of the visa status of foreign students and their dependents and immediately flags those who overstay their visas. According to the report to Congress on E-government, the system reduced conventional visa monitoring costs for international students from $4.5 million annually to $0.8 million.

SATISFACTION WITH GOVERNMENT WEB SITES. Although some dissatisfaction exists with federal government Web sites, the American people seemed to be happy with the improvements in e-government. Since 2003 the U.S. government has tracked Web sites in its annual American Customer Service Index (ACSI). The index measures how satisfied the American people are with various aspects of the federal government. Table 7.8 reveals that out of the Web sites on the survey, the American people were happiest with the National Institutes of Health's MedlinePlus Web site (www.medlineplus.gov) in 2004. Medline Plus scored eighty-six out of a possible one hundred on the index. The lowest score among the government Web sites was for the main site of the General Services Administration (www.gsa.gov) with a score of fifty-five in 2004.

Government Regulation

The federal government has passed very few laws designed to control Internet commerce or content compared with other broadcasting media. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates all television and radio content, treats the Internet more like print media than like broadcast media. Unless a major law is being violated, people can publish all manner of pornography, illicit writing, and misleading information on the Internet without fear of repercussion. Activities that are illegal in many states or the United States as a whole, such as gambling or purchasing Cuban cigars, can be done online with little fear of prosecution. In addition, most purchases made on the Internet were not subject to local sales tax as of 2004, and states and municipalities were forbidden by federal law to tax Internet use.

For the most part, Congress has been wary of placing restrictions or taxes on the Internet. In fact, in November 2004 the Congress extended the tax ban on both interstate Internet commerce and Internet service to 2007. As for content, Congress is wary of potential public backlash that it would encounter if it regulated such activities as Internet pornography or gambling. Enforcing strict regulations would be difficult as well. Unlike radio or television, publishing content on the Web is exceedingly easy. Anyone, provided he or she has willing participants, can set up a Web server for a couple of thousand dollars, take pornographic pictures, and post them on the Internet. If the U.S. government did make gambling or pornography on the Internet illegal altogether, such sites could easily be moved offshore where U.S. laws would not apply. Another option would be to place restrictions and controls on all computers and Web browsers in the United States. Such a plan may have been feasible back in the early 1990s, when Internet backbones and browsers were still in the development phase. Placing such controls on the tens of millions of current computers and Web browsers now in use would neither be well received nor easily implemented.

CONTROLLING THE ASSAULT OF NON-SOLICITED PORNOGRAPHY AND MARKETING ACT OF 2003 (CAN-SPAM). The little Internet regulation that the government has

TABLE 7.8

American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scores for e-government Web sites, 2004
ID	Agency/department	Customer segment	2004
SOURCE: Adapted from "ACSI Scores for U.S. Federal Government," Federal Consulting Group, a franchise of the U.S. Department of Treasury, December 14, 2004, http://www.theacsi.org/government/govt-04.html (accessed January 19, 2005
	E-Government U.S. agency/department/office	Website
	E-commerce/transactions
Treasury	United States Mint, Treasury	Online Catalog—http://catalog.usmint.gov	81
FSA	Federal Student Aid, Education	Free Application for Federal Student Aid, FAFSA website—www.fafsa.ed.gov	81
SSA	SSA Retirement Planner	SSA Retirement Planner—http://www.socialsecurity.gov/r&m1.htm	78
PBGC	Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation	PBGC main website—www.pbgc.gov	68
GSA	GSA Global Supply website	GSA Global Supply website–https://www.globalsupply.gsa.gov	67
GSA Advantage	General Services Administration	GSA Advantage website—https://www.gsaadvantage.gov	65
	Information/news
NLM	National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, HHS	MedlinePlus—http://medlineplus.gov	86
NLM	National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, HHS	Medline Plus en español—http://medlineplus.gov/esp/	83
OWH	Office on Women's Health, HHS	National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC) main website—www.4woman.gov	83
GSA	General Services Administration	Federal Citizen Information Center—www.pueblo.gsa.gov/	80
DOJ	National Criminal Justice Reference Service, Justice	NCJRS website—www.ncjrs.org	77
DOJ	National Institute of Justice, Justice	NIJ main website—http://www.ojp.gov/nij	77
NLM	National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, HHS	TOXNET—http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov	76
DOJ	Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Justice	OJJDP website—http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org	76
HHS	National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, HHS	AIDSinfo—http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/	76
DOL	Bureau of Labor Statistics	BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook—www.bls.gov/oco/	75
HHS	National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, HHS	NIAID main website—www.niaid.nih.gov	75
CDC	Center for Disease Control, HHS	CDC main website—www.cdc.gov	74
SSA	Social Security Administration	SFA FAQ—http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov	73
Forest	Forest Service, Agriculture	Forest Service main website—http://www.fs.fed.us	72
State	Department of State	U.S. Department of State Education USA—http://educationusa.state.gov	72
EIA	Energy Information Administration, Energy	Energy Information Administration—www.eia.doe.gov	70
ERS	Economic Research Service, Agriculture	ERS main website—www.ers.usda.gov	70
NARA	National Archives & Records Administration	NARA main public website—www.archives.gov	70
DOJ	Bureau of Justice Assistance, Justice	BJA main website—http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA	69
FAS	Foreign Agricultural Service, Agriculture	FAS main website—www.fas.usda.gov	68
NAL	National Agricultural Library, Agriculture	NAL main website—www.nal.usda.gov	68
FSIS	Food Safety and Inspection Service, Agriculture	FSIS main website—www.fsis.usda.gov	67
State	Department of State	U.S. Embassy, Belgium website (Dutch)—www.usembassy.be/nl/nl.main.html	67
State	International Information Programs, State	IIP main website—http://usinfo.state.gov	66
State	Department of State	U.S. Embassy, Belgium main website—www.usembassy.be/main.html	64
State	Department of State	Student website—http://future.state.gov	64
State	Department of State	U.S. Embassy, Belgium website (French)—www.usembassy.be/fr/fr.main.html	63
CSREES	Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Agriculture	CSREES main website—www.csrees.usda.gov	62
DOL	Employment Standards Administration, Labor	ESA main website—www.union-reports.dol.gov	61
NARA	National Archives & Records Administration	NARA AAD—Access to Archival Databases—http://www.archivesgov/aad/index.html	59
	Portals/department main sites
NCI	National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, HHS	National Cancer Institute main website—www.cancer.gov	80
NARA	National Archives & Records Administration	NARA Presidential Library websites—http://.archives.gov/presidential_libraries/index.html	79
Commerce	National Institute of Standards and Technology, Commerce	NIST main website—www.nist.gov	77
NASA	National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NASA main website—www.nasa.gov	77
NLM	National Library of Medicine, HHS	NLM main website—www.nlm.nih.gov	76
FDIC	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation	FDIC main website—www.fdic.gov	74
SSA	Social Security Administration	SSA main website—www.socialsecurity.gov	73
State	Department of State	Department of State main website—www.state.gov	73
GSA	General Services Administration	FirstGov.gov website (Spanish)—http://firstgov.gov/Espanol/index.shtml	72
GSA	General Services Administration	FirstGov.gov website—www.firstgov.gov	72
GAO	Government Accountability Office	GAO main public website—www.gao.gov	71
Treasury	Department of the Treasury	Treasury main website—www.treasury.gov	69
FAA	Federal Aviation Administration	FAA main website—www.faa.gov	68
USPTO	United States Patent & Trademark Office	USPTO main website—www.uspto.gov	66
GSA	General Services Administration	GSA main website—www.gsa.gov	55
	Recruitment/careers
CIA	Central Intelligence Agency	Recruitment website—www.cia.gov/employment	79
OPM	Office of Personnel Management	Recruitment website—www.usajobs.opm.gov	76
State	Department of State	Recruitment website—www.careers.state.gov	76

enacted has met with mixed results. In January 2004 the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect. The act, passed by Congress in 2003, required that all spam contain a legitimate return address as well as instructions on how to opt out of receiving additional spam from the sender. Spam must also state in the subject line if the e-mail is pornographic in

TABLE 7.9

Public opinion on the amount of spam received after passage of CAN-SPAM legislation, February 2004
	Those with personal email accounts (N=1,099)	Those with work-related email accounts (N=576)
SOURCE: Lee Rainie and Deborah Fallows, "Since January 1, have you noticed any change in the amount of spam you receive?" in Pew Internet and American Life Project Data Memo: the impact of the CAN-SPAM legislation," Pew Internet and American Life Project, March 2004, http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Data_Memo_on_Spam.pdf (accessed December 11, 2004). Used by permission of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of the data.
Getting more spam	24%	19%
Getting less spam	20%	11%
Haven't noticed a change	53%	53%
Never got spam or don't know	3%	18%

nature. Violators of these rules were to be subject to heavy fines. According to Lee Rainie and Deborah Fallows in The CAN-SPAM Act Has Not Helped Most Email Users So Far (Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 17, 2004), three months after the act took effect, no change had occurred in the level of spam received by Americans. Table 7.9 reveals that a vast majority of users with personal e-mail accounts surveyed (77%) reported receiving either the same amount of spam or more spam in the three months the act had been in effect.

CHILDREN'S INTERNET PROTECTION ACT (CIPA). A more successful regulation is the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000. Under the act, public schools and libraries were required to keep minors from viewing explicitly sexual content on public school and library computers. If these organizations did not comply, they would no longer receive government assistance in buying IT equipment. According to a 2002 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey, 99% of elementary and secondary public schools had complied with CIPA by 2002. Regulations involving children's welfare, however, have always been warmly received by the public, and this fact may account for CIPA's success.