Homeland Security’s E-Gov and Lines of Business Funding to Top $32 Million

Earlier in January OMB released its annual Report to Congress on the Benefits of the E-Government Initiatives for FY 2014, just days before Congress appropriated $16 million to the E-Gov fund in the final FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations bill that funds the government for the remainder of fiscal 2014. But each participating department and agency contributes funding and in-kind support to various initiatives, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is slated to contribute nearly $32.5 million this year.

This year’s E-Gov report provides a description of E-Government initiatives including the objectives, benefits, development status, risks, and cost effectiveness of E-Government initiatives and lines of business. A recent news report noted the fact that Congress did not approve the White House’s proposal to eliminate or consolidate nearly 400 reports to Congress, including the E-Gov report. Further, the story highlighted that in this year’s report OMB did not include how much agencies paid for the services it received from the programs, a divergence from previous years’ reports. Instead, the administration reported only on the in-kind contributions, essentially a “pass-the-hat” approach.

Included in 143 pages of information are the sources and distribution of FY 2014 funding by agen­cy and by bureau. A summary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding for this fiscal year is below.

The report includes an appendix that provides highlights of the benefits partner agencies receive through the initiatives and lines of business, of which DHS listed several for 2013, including:

• Information Systems Security Line of Business (ISS LoB) – The ISS LoB seeks to develop common solutions in the form of products and/or managed services that can be utilized government-wide to address information systems security mandates, policy, and guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The tools and services offered through the ISS LoB-sponsored acquisitions are priced lower than those available through other vehicles. The ISS LoB also offers tools and services to agencies through shared service centers (SSCs). The ISS LoB currently oversees six SSCs which provide risk management services, and four SSCs which offer security awareness training services to the Federal community.
  
  Key examples include:
  
  • Continuous Monitoring as a Service (CMaaS) – The CMaaS family of acquisitions provides information security tools and services that meet the needs and priorities of agency stakeholders. CMaaS enhances security while providing cost-avoidance in the IT security arena. The CMaaS Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), awarded in the fourth quarter of FY 2013, covers 15 key continuous monitoring capabilities and saves time and resources by streamlining the acquisition process for these offerings. In FY 2013, agencies saved an average of 88% in acquisition costs when by utilizing the CMaaS BPA. For example, one agency purchased a license for a systems lifecycle solution with 370,000 licenses at an MSRP of $19.80. Using the BPA pricing the cost per license was $2.39, achieved nearly $6.5 million in cost-savings.
    
  • SSC Risk Management and Security Awareness Training Services – The ISS LoB offers standardized risk management and security awareness training to civilian agencies through their SSCs, providing a more streamlined option than conducting a private sector acquisition of similar tools and services. Agencies save time and resources by utilizing risk management solutions and security awareness training through SSCs. In FY 2013 the risk management and training services provided by the ISS LoB SSCs resulted in $84.1 million in cost-avoidance government-wide. Additionally, using SSCs reduces service procurement time from months to weeks, expediting improved security. In FY 2013, 58 agencies and their sub-components improved their security posture by using SSC risk management services to evaluate the technical and non-technical security controls of their information systems.
    
    
• Budget Formulation and Execution Line of Business (BFE LoB) – The BFE LoB provides tools and resources to improve collaboration among the 15 DHS components. Through the LoB, DHS uses the Budget Formulation and Execution Manager (BFEM), the first shared service budget formulation system, to produce the annual budget request, and has provided DHS with a cost-effective option for automating the development of the budget submission. In addition, this LoB has improved DHS’s use of the MAX Federal Community to collaborate on internal and external initiatives, and hold on-line meetings with remote participants in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Using this LoB, DHS implemented collaborative public safety initiatives with other Federal agencies to ensure continuity of operations.
  
  
• Financial Management Line of Business (FM LoB) – The FM LoB supports cross-agency financial management transparency solutions (e.g. System of Management (SAM), the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS), www.USASpending. gov, etc.) and sub-recipient reporting. These solutions help DHS streamline financial management and assistance business processes and data management practices. DHS’s participation in the LOB’s program management infrastructure initiative allows DHS to help provide improved solutions for the financial management community including financial assistance program management and reporting, and enhanced alignment among the financial assistance communities. Finally, the FM LoB enables DHS to improve reporting transparency of spending and improves the consistency and quality of DHS data across all financial spending communities including acquisitions and financial assistance.
  
  
• Geospatial Line of Business (Geo LoB) – The DHS Geospatial Management Office (GMO) is the portfolio manager for advancing the Geospatial Program objectives – from planning to implementation of enterprise geospatial IT shared services and COTS products. The Geospatial working group provides DHS-wide program governance and an executive steering committee to prioritize need and revise acquisition and payment modes for geospatial enterprise systems and services, achieving efficiencies while strategically aligning investments. The GMO is enabling the procurement of new enterprise-wide geospatial technical support services, geospatial data and geospatial software contracts to consolidate existing geospatial investments, or close capability gaps. The GMO also renewed enterprise software contracts for geospatial software and coordinated with FGDC and NGA on reuse of the Homeland Security Infrastructure Protection data product and other national geospatial data assets to achieve efficiencies, cost-savings, and provide easier access to geospatial software and support services.
  
  
• Human Resources Line of Business (HR LoB) – The HR IT Program within the DHS Office of the Chief Human Capital Office is working to consolidate, integrate, and modernize core HR systems across DHS components by reducing redundancy and increasing functionality and efficiency. Human Capital Business Systems (HCBS) is the designated portfolio manager responsible for advancing HR LoB shared services and other HR systems and services to consolidate, modernize, and/or replace HR IT systems and address capability gaps at the Department-level. DHS is using enterprise-wide contract vehicles and procurements to consolidate and eliminate redundant management efforts and systems while also closing capability gaps identified during the Human Capital Segment Architecture study completed in 2011. For example, in May 2013, DHS awarded a BPA for an Enterprise Talent Management System (ETMS) to consolidate nine Learning Management Systems and provide an integrated employee performance management system. This software-as-a-service application is hosted in the vendor’s public cloud under FedRAMP. In September 2013 DHS awarded a BPA for medical workers compensation case management services to provide employees with early intervention and case management by medical professionals while reducing waste and saving time.