Carry cash plan

E-Government Plan Short on Cash

Byline: Robert MacMillan

An "e-government" program to make the federal government more citizen-friendly is $40 million short of its intended budget, potentially hurting White House efforts to bolster public access to important information and services, experts said.

The Bush administration's E-Government Strategy, unveiled today, is aimed at helping federal agencies communicate better so they can make government regulations, services and other kinds of information more available to the public.

The White House requested $45 million to put the program in action this year, but Congress cut that amount to $5 million. President Bush has asked Congress to spend $345 million for the program over four years.

Mark Forman, head of the e-government office at the White House Office of Management and Budget, today acknowledged that the shortfall is an obstacle, but said that the government still must carry out the plan.

"Does it mean we can't do these initiatives? We have to. Our workaround is basically to tighten up on the financing strategy," he said.

Elena Larsen of the Pew Internet and American Life Project said the e-government office's budget is too little money to make a big difference at first.

"Five million dollars is a drop in the bucket in many federal budgets. It doesn't cover any staff members, it doesn't cover a whole lot of technology needs, and I would imagine that their progress toward their goal of seamless [government] would be greatly slowed by having their budget cut to 1/9th of what they had originally asked for," she said.

House Government Reform Committee spokesman David Marin was more blunt. "Five million [dollars] doesn't get the job done," he said.

Forman said today that the White House wants to restore the amount it originally requested for e-government spending this year.

Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that cutting e-government funding will cost the government more money in the long run.

"It's always easier to cut a new program than an existing program," Schwartz said. "These are projects that would save money in other areas."

The Bush administration's e-government plan includes dozens of other goals besides increased information sharing, such as modernizing government technology and insuring that computer networks are safe from online attacks.

The government already has built several online resources to improve public accessibility, including Web sites like egov.gov, regulations.gov, volunteer.gov, the IRS Free File system and businesslaw.gov.

A General Accounting Office report released last November said that federal agencies need to do more to help the fulfill the e-government mission of focusing on citizens.

Only 8 percent of the American population is familiar with the term "e-government," according to a study released this week by the Council for Excellence in Government.

Half of the American population has used a federal, state or local government Web site to get information or conduct transactions, the study showed. About 52 percent of Americans are concerned about how the government will use their personal data, the study also found, noting that only 29 percent of Americans polled gave their personal data to a government Web site, compared to 70 percent who gave such data to a commercial Web site.

The report also found that 61 percent of Americans are interested in using the Internet to renew their drivers' licenses, but that 54 percent oppose online voting.