OMB Recommends Digitization Efforts Across Federal Government

Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic are guiding technological modernization efforts under the Biden administration.

In a budget passback, the Office of Management and Budget recommended that agencies accelerate the adoption and utilization of electronic signatures for public facing digital forms. While they have been around since the late 1990s, digital signatures only became widely used in the government during the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The OMB is also looking at promoting other modernization efforts such as digitizing forms and government services, providing electronic consent and access to records and enabling data interoperability to benefit public-facing services.

In addition, the OMB wants to improve services underpinned by technology, including customer service.

“The administration is implementing a comprehensive approach to improving the equity, access, and overall delivery of federal services, which includes improving customer experience management,” the passback stated.

The push for upgrades in the government is further underscored by the additional $1 billion budget injected into the General Services Administration’s Technology Modernization Fund.

Maria Roat, deputy federal chief information officer of the OMB, considers the TMF a means for accelerating modernization and improvement projects.

Speaking at a CompTIA webinar, Roat, a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker and one-time Wash100 winner, said the additional funding for TMF will finance projects focused on protecting high value assets, improving public citizen services and balancing the foundational technical maturity across the federal government.

According to Roat, the Housing and Urban Development’s mainframe modernization effort is a prime example of projects that the TMF board seeks to finance.