President Barack Obama’s most ambitious and costly digital innovation programs would become permanent fixtures of the federal government if Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is elected.
Clinton would make the U.S. Digital Service a permanent part of the executive branch, and promised support for other fledgling digital initiatives to create a “smarter and more innovative government.”
Clinton supports digital initiatives to “make our government smarter, more efficient, and more responsive,” according to her Tech and Innovation Agenda, released Tuesday. Particularly, Clinton said she supports the efforts of 18F, a technology consulting agency managed by the General Services Administration that advises federal agencies on how to implement new technology. Because it is supposed to be funded on a fee-for-service model, 18F has been described as a “technology consulting firm within the government.”
The fee-for-service model has not made 18F profitable yet, and the likely won’t generate enough revenue to cover its annual expenses in 2019, according to a June report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
GAO revealed that 18F spends about $1 million more each month than it recoups in revenue. The GAO estimates by the end of 2016, the federal technology firm will be $33 million in the hole.
Clinton said she will look to 18F and other programs “to develop a coordinated approach to tackling pressing technology problems” within the government.
Under Clinton’s plan, U.S. Digital Service would be tasked with digitizing the top 25 federal agencies to make them more user-friendly and responsive to the “needs of citizens in the 21st century.” Clinton wants a “Yelp for government” that would allow Americans to rate federal services.
Some policy researchers are skeptical about Clinton’s support of digital programs that are largely untested. “No one seems to be evaluating these programs,” Thomas Lenard, president of the Technology Policy Institute, told the New York Times.
Clinton’s policy fact sheet, which the New York Times describes as “a list maker’s dream,” focuses primarily on private sector initiatives to increase entrepreneurship and job creation in tech and digital industries. (VIDEO: Hillary: If You Elect Me, I’ll Give You WiFi)
Clinton also introduced a plan to make the Internet free for all Americans, defer student loans for new technology graduates and expand grant opportunities for computer science programs in underserved and minority populations.
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