In connection with the Campaign to Cut Waste, the Obama Administration is taking action to address the problems that plague Federal information technology (IT), a critical effort to reduce waste and close the IT gap between the public and private sectors. The U.S. Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Federal CIO-Council are spearheading this effort, as described in the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management, and the .Gov Reform Initiative is one of the first steps in fulfilling that vision. For details on this initiative and the progress achieved to date by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), see the following topics on this page:
In addition, if you'd like to take an active role in this transformation, see How can the public get involved in improving federal websites?
Background
In issuing Executive Order (EO) 13571, "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service," dated April 27, 2011, President Obama stated that, "with advances in technology and service delivery systems…, the public's expectations of the Government have continued to rise," and the Government "must keep pace with and even exceed those expectations." Toward that end, EO 13571 and the related guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed Federal agencies to improve the design and management of agency websites that provide services or information to the public, and to use innovative technologies to improve customer service at lower costs and with greater efficiency, consistent with President Obama's Campaign to Cut Waste.
Building on the President's Open Government Initiative, the OMB guidance stated, "To simplify access to Federal services, the Government needs a comprehensive and consistent strategy for managing its web resources efficiently and assuring that valuable content is available online and is readily accessible." The .Gov Reform Effort: Improving Federal Websites is one of the first steps in fulfilling that direction. In doing so, Federal agencies will enhance the public's online experience by eliminating redundant websites, and improving those that are outdated, hard to use, or poorly maintained.
As an independent regulatory agency that prides itself on openness, transparency, participation, and collaboration, the NRC is pleased to take a leading role in the .Gov Reform Initiative. In fact, we have embraced the precepts of this initiative for nearly 20 years through our use of a single website as our primary means of keeping the public and other agency stakeholders informed of — and involved in — our regulatory, licensing, and oversight activities. This steadily expanding resource currently encompasses more than 40,000 pages of information on a variety of mission-related activities, and we regularly incorporate more than 650 updates and additions each month to ensure that our online content remains current, accurate, and relevant to our site visitors. In addition, we continually implement innovative technologies as part of an incremental improvement cycle to efficiently manage our web resources and ensure that valuable content is available and readily accessible through our public website.
Step 1: Current State of the Agencywide Web Improvement Efforts
Consistent with OMB guidance for the .Gov Reform Initiative, we've developed an initial Web Improvement Plan as the first step in communicating the NRC's strategy for managing our Web resources more efficiently, improving online content, and enhancing the public's experience of our agency websites. As such, this plan responds to specific questions regarding the management of our websites in the .gov domain. As we continue to iteratively develop this plan over the next several months, we will address additional questions regarding our web improvement strategy, actions, measurements, and timelines. To assess our progress against that of other Federal agencies, see Agency Web Improvement Plans, and select Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Also, the CIO-Council has directed Government agencies to review their Web sites to identify those that should be consolidated or eliminated, as well as website content that needs to be improved. In doing so, the NRC retained our primary NRC.gov domain for our public website, as well as our gateway-nrc.gov domain to host the NRC Blog. We also decided to retain the usnrc.gov domain, which is currently inactive and does not display content for public use, but is occasionally used by NRC technical staff as a test site for new web applications. However, in September 2011, we eliminated the lsnnet.gov domain, which previously hosted our obsolete Licensing Support Network site. In doing so, we fulfilled the President's goal to reduce (or redirect to existing domains) 25% of federal executive branch .gov domains by September 2011.
In addition, to improve our use of technology, we are diligently working toward the goals set forth in the CIO-Council's 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management. Implementing this plan is helping us modernize our operations, create new efficiencies, save resources, and improve effectiveness. One of the most important aspects of this reform plan is moving toward cloud-based systems, such as cloud-based online meeting resources and the private cloud hosting platform administered by the General Services Administration. For additional detail, see NRC Meeting Challenges with Improved Technology.
Step 2: Revised Agency Web Improvement Plans
Once the .Gov Reform Task Force releases the Federal Web Strategy and issues additional web policy and guidance, OMB will ask the NRC and other agencies to provide more detailed web improvement plans. In doing so, we will describe the implementation of our revised plan, including specific actions we will take, timelines for accomplishing those actions, and metrics for measuring progress.
Step 3: Review of Agency Web Improvement Plans
OMB and the .Gov Reform Task Force will review agency web improvement plans and meet with each agency's CIO, Director of Public Affairs, and Web Manager to provide feedback on the plans. This peer review may also include review by the Federal Web Managers Council and other subject matter experts.
Step 4: Posting of Agency Web Improvement Plans on Agency Open Government Pages
Based on the feedback from Step 3, we will revise our web improvement plan and post it here within 30 days of meeting with the .Gov Reform Task Force.
Step 5: Reporting Results of Agency Web Improvement Plans
Following the release of our revised web improvement plan in Step 4, we will report our progress to OMB at quarterly intervals.
Page Last Reviewed/Updated Friday, March 06, 2020