The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience (IDEA) Act requires public-facing Federal agency websites to meet several modernization standards to be more accessible, user-friendly, and secure.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) took a deep dive to find out how the 24 Federal CFO Act agencies did in meeting those requirements in 2023, but it discovered a problem: many agencies didn’t submit their progress reports on those efforts.
“Of the 192 requirements that the 24 agencies were to report on each year, the agencies addressed 84 in 2022 and 109 in 2023. The remaining requirements were either not addressed in the reports (i.e., progress was not explicitly mentioned) or unreported due to missing reports,” the new GAO report says.
“Of the 18 agencies that submitted 2023 annual reports, seven addressed all eight requirements. The remaining 11 did not address all eight, including one agency that did not address any, one agency that addressed three, and two agencies that addressed four requirements. Six agencies did not submit 2023 reports; consequently, their progress was unknown,” it adds.
Overall, the 24 CFO Act agencies submitted 70 percent of the 120 total required annual reports between December 2019 and December 2023 – when the reporting requirement sunsetted.
However, GAO said that the reports had “varying levels of content and detail” due to a lack of reporting guidance. The government watchdog said this contributed to the “inconsistent reporting, as agencies were allowed to interpret compliance differently throughout the reporting period.”
The good news is that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published new guidance to assist Federal agencies in modernizing their websites in September 2023 – superseding the previous guidance from 2012.
The new guidance has a number of requirements for Federal agencies, such as using web analytics, using automated website scanning tools to identify usability issues, developing better search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, and implementing an on-site search function (like Search.gov) for Federal websites.
GAO said OMB’s guidance established “a renewed focus on improving digital experience in the Federal space.” Additionally, it said the guidance “summarized relevant statutory requirements, clarified policy requirements for all Federal public-facing websites, and expanded best practices for agency websites and digital services.”
GAO is hoping that the guidance will lend to a clearer picture of agencies’ progress in implementing the 21st Century IDEA Act.
“Recent guidance clarifies the eight modernization requirements by including a number of actions that agencies should perform,” GAO concludes. “This guidance provides the opportunity to improve oversight by tracking agency progress towards meeting the clarified requirements.”
