The Senate unanimously passed legislation on June 27 that pushes the federal government to provide greater Internet access to information and services, authorizing $345 million over the next four years for an e-government fund, just one part of the bill. The administration opposed this legislation (S. 803, the E-Government Act) as originally introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), but negotiations over the last year led to a compromise agreement and cleared the way for passage. It remains unclear, however, if the House will act on its companion version (H.R. 2458), which has been on the shelf since its introduction a year ago by Rep. Jim Turner (D-TX). A spokesman for Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), who chairs the Government Reform Committee’s Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation, told Federal Computer Week that the new homeland security department proposed by the president would take priority. If enacted, S. 803 would mark the first comprehensive legislative effort aimed directly at dealing with electronic information, covering a wide range of issues from information security and disaster preparedness to the digital divide and government employee training to information management and dissemination, which is where the bill should ultimately be judged. On this point, S. 803 creates a new Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide overall leadership across federal agencies on e-government and generally assist and oversee activities directed by the bill. This includes:

• Managing an e-government fund. OMB will control an e-government fund to support agency projects that make federal information and services more readily available through the Internet. This fund is authorized $45 million for fiscal year 2003 (which still must be appropriated), rising each year to $150 million by 2006.
• Working with the General Services Administration (GSA) to maintain an integrated federal web portal. Currently, GSA already maintains such a portal at FirstGov.gov. S. 803 would give it a legislative blessing for the first time, giving OMB formal leadership responsibility and putting Congress in a better position to exercise oversight.
• Setting new standards to enable the organization and categorization of information “in a way that is searchable electronically, including by searchable identifiers.” With guidance from OMB, agencies are also to establish a directory of “subjects used to review and categorize” federal government web sites, which is to be made available through the web portal discussed above. Currently, the organization of agency web sites varies greatly, as pointed out in this OMB Watch analysis of e-rulemaking. Categorizing information by common subjects across agencies would facilitate retrieval of information, and negate the need for the user to know which agency houses what information.
• Setting new standards for agency web sites. OMB is to issue guidance on agency web sites and “minimum agency goals” to assist public navigation, including speed and relevance of search results, as well as “tools to aggregate and disaggregate data.”
• Promoting integrated reporting and dissemination. OMB is to designate up to five pilot projects to “integrate data elements.” At least one of these must eliminate duplicative data collection and integrate databases maintained by multiple agencies to facilitate public access, something OMB Watch has long advocated.

These are positive steps to be sure, and should be embraced by the House. However, the E-Government Act should be recognized as a first step to bring greater resources, focus, and organization to electronic information. Refinements will inevitably be needed, and other issues will need to be explored (such as interactivity between the public and government officials through the Internet). Moreover, it will also be important to examine how the E-Government Act, if enacted, interacts in practice with other laws dealing with information policy, and whether lines of responsibility are clear. For instance, how does the new Office of E-Government sort out responsibilities with OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is broadly charged with overseeing information policy under the Paperwork Reduction Act? Accordingly, Congress will need to remain engaged, recognizing S. 803 as only a starting point. Click here for a full summary of the bill.