OMB Extends Ban On New Federal Websites
The Office of Management and Budget extended a ban on the creation of new federal websites. Agencies have been mandated to take inventory of all their web domains and develop a plan of action for improvement by Oct. 11.
The OMB directed this change through a memo sent on behalf of U.S. CIO Steven VanRoekel. This new policy is in response to President Obama’s executive order in June for all federal agencies and departments to eliminate wasteful spending in a Campaign to Cut Waste. This movement resulted in shutting down of hundreds of websites and freezing further development of existing domains.
The freeze will continue until Dec. 31, 2011. In order for agencies to launch new .gov domains, they must receive a waiver from VanRoekel. Agencies are required to list sites they’ve already shut down and demonstrate how they will improve remaining ones. In order to demonstrate progress of this process, agencies are required to submit a report on .gov domains shut down since the Campaign to Cut Waste by Sept. 6.
According to the memo, domains that are ”outdated, redundant, or poorly performing domains, old ‘redirects’ that no longer provide value, or domains that are non-functioning and no longer in use,” should be either improved or terminated.
Internal inventory for agencies must be complete by Oct. 11 when they will then report on all .gov registered names highlighting websites that are valuable to the public and could be used as models for other sites. These reports should also identify opportunities for improved efficiency in web management and operations across agencies as well as how these affect interaction with customers.
Since Obama released the Campaign to Cut Waste, the OMB has appointed a .gov reform task force, which has been meeting regularly to develop recommendations for federal website reform. The hope is to reduce .gov domains by 25 percent by next month, and 50 percent by the end of the year.
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