The Need for Government-Wide Information Capacity

Jane Fountain discussed the need for government-wide or federal interagency information capacity. She concluded that the constraints of the Clinger-Cohen Act's reporting mechanisms have caused the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to lose sight of the big picture—the need for interagency net-working and information technology (IT) oversight. However, there has been considerable behind-the-scenes work by GAO to bring about passage of legislation to increase government-wide information capacity through, for example, the E-Government Act of 2002. The act establishes (a) an Office of Electronic Government within the Office of Management and Budget and (b) data sharing between certain agencies. Much of GAO's work tends not to be reflected in reports on individual agency IT problems. However, GAO has testified of the need for more government-wide focus on IT challenges, lending support to Dr. Fountain's overall point about the need for government-wide information capacity.