Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust
in Government

The Secretary of State shall:

• With an initial goal of reaching 25,000 pilot users from a target audience of Federal employees and contractors in Spring 2022, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) has expanded to a limited public release for continued piloting and improvement of the Online Passport Renewal.  As of January 2023, the State Department has processed 169,559 online passport renewals. The limited public release will continue until the full public launch expected later in 2023.
• CA expanded Online Passport Renewal technical support to customers to include phone support in addition to email from 8am to 8pm Eastern on Mondays through Fridays.
• The Department of State gathered customer satisfaction data from customers that piloted the use of Online Passport Renewal. To date, more than 12,000 customers have completed a survey during the limited monthly release with 99% of respondents indicating they were very likely to use the online renewal system in the future. Furthermore, 96% of respondents reported that completion of the application was very easy or somewhat easy.

The Secretary of the Treasury shall:

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has expanded customer callbacks to 75% of its toll-free demand. Last fiscal year, the IRS offered this service to more than 11 million taxpayers with an acceptance rate exceeding 58%, saving taxpayers more than 3.6 million hours of hold time.
• Returns filed with errors can delay processing times (an error-free electronic return is processed within 21 days). Each year, the IRS takes several proactive steps, including outreach and service options, to help taxpayers file an accurate return. To further improve the taxpayer experience, last filing season, the IRS developed an automated tool that dramatically expands efficiencies and has helped close 1.5 million error resolution cases in a single week.
• The IRS created and expanded self-service portals for taxpayers, including for online payment agreements, requesting payment transcripts, requesting Identity Protection PINs, and updating personal information. In just the last fiscal year, almost 15 million taxpayers registered for online accounts and other protected online applications, allowing for important information—on benefits received, notices, and taxpayer payment history—to be easily and securely accessed on demand.

The Secretary of the Interior shall:

• In March of 2022, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) launched the first-ever full-scale overhaul of https://www.fws.gov/.
• FWS began a series of design sprints to digitize five permit application forms (with a goal of fully digitizing all application forms) required for international export of fish, wildlife, plants, and their associated products, and to make those forms available to the public by June of 2023 on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Permits page. Since beginning their design sprints, FWS has:
  • Added a customer support staff member and launched an in-app help tool, that combined, reduces the customer assistance timeframe to 24-48 hours, down from seven to 30 days. The in-app customer support tool and added resource significantly improved customer service experience, a high priority precursor to full digitization of forms;
  • Incorporated data collection via customer survey to baseline end-to-end customer experience in advance of digitization of the five high-volume import/export permit applications managed on the ePermits Platform. FWS looks forward to reporting those results quarterly beginning 2Q of FY23;
  • Released development to facilitate external customer submission of permit renewal and amendment requests, which are 50% of the total volume of permit requests, per year;
  • Researched, analyzed, and decided on a digitization architecture to ensure solid design for digitized forms in the ePermits platform to meet the June 2023 goal.
• FWS migrated 16 permits or passes services to Recreation.gov for nine National Wildlife Refuges. The team is currently scoping to assess platform suitability for approximately 100 National Wildlife Refuges and national fish hatcheries that issue permits and passes for a range of recreational activities.

The Secretary of Agriculture shall:

• Through a grant with the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) has made four awards to State agencies and vendors to implement and test online shopping capabilities for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) benefits.
• FNS has approved 46 American Rescue Plan Act waivers for WIC State agencies to support outreach, innovation, and modernization and has posted a table listing all approved waivers on the FNS webpage.
• USDA FNS has awarded more than $10 million in grants to 20 State agencies to improve the shopping experience through projects such as testing new ways of conducting outreach to potential WIC participants, making it easier for WIC participants to use their benefits in store, and laying the groundwork for online shopping in the future. USDA FNS has also awarded $23 million in grants to 66 State agencies for technology enhancements that improve the WIC participant experience, reduce unnecessary administrative burden for both participants and administrators, and retain eligible participants while improving equity. These improvements can include improved text messaging, online appointment scheduling, plain language improvements and collecting data to measure customer experience.
• In February, FNS will propose a new rule to address key regulatory barriers to online ordering in the WIC Program by making changes to the provisions that prevent online transactions and types of online capable stores from participating in the program. Information related to the rule can be found here.

• FNS selected and approved 14 States to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid demonstration projects. This brings the number of States to 26 which use Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income data to directly certify students as eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals. The demonstration project streamlines and expands access to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program by removing the barrier of the application process for families and lightening the administration burden for schools.
  • 98% of children nationwide now have streamlined access to meals served in school as part of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
  • 70% of the elementary school children in the country now benefit from their State’s participation in the demonstration project
  • 15 new States have applied to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Project beginning in 2023-2024 school year.

• A new online Loan Assistance Tool was launched in October 2022 to provide a gateway for new and existing customers to learn about and access Farm Loan Program credit products and services.  The tool is to help farmers and ranchers better navigate the farm loan application process by providing an online guide that explains each step of the loan application process in plain language.   It provides a uniform explanation of loan application requirements and processes, ensuring customers receive a consistent customer experience.  A fillable version of the new Direct Loan Application will be available in the Loan Assistance Tool in March 2023. Together, the new Direct Loan Application and Loan Assistance Tool can improve customer experiences and increase equitable credit access by refining the process to be more easily navigable. 
• USDA has simplified and streamlined its Farm Loan Programs’ Direct Loan Application that is submitted more than 25,000 times annually by farmers and ranchers seeking credit to start, sustain, or grow their operation.  The new application, which was approved by OMB on January 13, 2023, is written in plain language, has more detailed instructions, and compared to the previous form is reduced from 29 pages to 13 pages and from 10 forms to one form, with a projected reduction in average customer content response by 50% or more.  The new Direct Loan Application will be published in March 2023 once its companion Loan Assistance Tool guide is updated.

The Secretary of Labor shall:

• The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) has updated policies so that beneficiaries can use telehealth options for routine medical treatment appointments.

• OWCP’s Black Lung program developed and implemented an outreach and awareness campaign to promote use of the C.O.A.L. Mine electronic document submission portal and expects to see increased usage throughout FY 2023. In addition, the Black Lung Program implemented an artificial intelligence (AI) system which handles incoming annual benefit forms from the C.O.A.L. Mine Portal, ensuring that continued benefits are processed instantaneously upon receipt.
• OWCP’s Energy program enhanced its Energy Document Portal (EDP) to allow digital signatures on new applications and payment forms that previously required wet signatures, such as the digital submission of the Employee’s Claim Form, Survivor’s Claim Form, and Acceptance of Payment form. Using identity proofing and digital signatures provides a more secure and expeditious way to submit new claims and receive compensation and medical benefits.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall:

• The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used extensive user interviews and prototyping to better understand Medicare customers’ needs to inform improvements to Medicare.gov such as redesigned homepages, navigation, mobile responsiveness, and task lists for the 2022 Open Enrollment Season. More details on these improvements are as follows:
  • A redesigned Medicare Plan Finder summary page that highlights existing coverage, drugs, and pharmacies and allows easy access to edit those items directly without going through multiple page clicks
  • A comparison of year-over-year coverage – what your existing plan will look like next year if you don’t take any action during the 2022 open enrollment period
  • An in-network pharmacy finder – highlighting lower-cost pharmacy options
  • A notification flagging when a user takes a drug for which there is a newly available Interchangeable Biologics (IB) treatment option which often costs less.
  • As a result of changes like these, Medicare has found that there is a 72% increase in satisfaction (up from 52%) in Medicare for those operating behind an authenticated login experience, and a 15% increase in authenticated uses of its website by returning users.

• In July 2022, CMS released a Maternity Care Action Plan to support and implement the Biden-Harris Maternal Health Blueprint. The action plan takes a holistic and coordinated approach across CMS to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities for people during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
• On August 1, 2022, CMS finalized the creation of a “Birthing-Friendly” hospital designation through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule. This designation will be available on a consumer-friendly display, to indicate a hospital’s commitment to improving maternal health outcomes through participation in maternity care quality activities. CMS will give this designation to hospitals that report “yes” to both questions in the Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure for CY 2022, reporting to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program. Designation results will be posted to a CMS website in Fall 2023. In the future, CMS may consider a more robust set of criteria that may include other maternal health-related measures for awarding the designation.
• CMS finalized the FY 2023 IPPS-LTCH PPS final rule FY 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule, which also includes two perinatal Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs)—Cesarean Birth and Severe Obstetric Complications—available for self-selection beginning with the CY 2023 reporting period/FY 2025 payment determination followed by mandatory reporting beginning with the CY 2024 reporting period/FY 2026 payment determination.

• The Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families, in collaboration with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a new policy to make it easier for familiesto demonstrate eligibility for Head Start by showing proof of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation.
• The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the United States Digital Service (USDS), announced the release of the Guide to Creating a Family Friendly Child Care Assistance Application. This digital resource provides states with guidance on how to simplify the child care assistance application process for families and adopt best practices for eligibility processing, including the elimination of non-essential enrollment requirements and bringing applications online.

• In August 2022, CMS released a new proposed rule that would make it easier for millions of eligible people to enroll in and retain their Medicaid coverage. The rule would reduce red tape and simplify applications, verifications, enrollment, and renewals for health care coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In this rulemaking, CMS seeks to close gaps, further streamlining Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment processes, reducing administrative burden on states and applicants/enrollees, and increasing enrollment and retention of eligible individuals.

• The Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance explaining how audio-only telehealth may be provided by practitioners in compliance with the HIPAA Rules, including when OCR’s Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth Remote Communications (Telehealth Notification) and the COVID-19 public health emergency is no longer in effect, making it easier for Americans to access vital care while protecting their health information privacy.

• The Office of the National Coordinator for Health (ONC) has worked to test methods to automate patient access to electronic health records to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity to benefit pregnant mothers, social service providers, clinicians, other payors / providers, developers, vendors, others. With the first pilot, 4,000 women have been empowered to better understand their lab results with information approved and verified by their provider to ensure a healthy pregnancy and the healthy delivery of their child. This workflow will now become part of the company’s UX and be a feature that is on the roadmap for all providers supporting women during pregnancy.
• In the subsequent pilot, enhancements were made available to a Patient Request tool to customers nationwide. As of November 30, 2022, the Patient Request tool has been implemented at over 1,000 healthcare provider sites, used by more than 700,000 patients, and received positive feedback from more than 95% of those patients.  The partnership and roll-out of the tool with Virginia-based Sentara health care represents an opportunity to change the experience women have during pregnancy and beyond. HHS would also like to recognize Path Group, Datavant, and Luminate Health for their participation.

The Secretary of Education shall:

• In light of the pandemic, many students struggled to stay in school and make ends meet, so it is crucial that they are aware of benefits that may be available to them. Federal Student Aid (FSA) issued guidance to institutions of higher education about how and when FAFSA data may be used to help inform students of benefits and opportunities that may be available to them, like the Affordable Connectivity Program. Federal Student Aid (FSA) has also conducted email outreach campaigns to those students who may be eligible for other programs.

• To deliver a repayment portal on StudentAid.gov, Federal Student Aid must award new, long-term loan servicing contracts. These contracts are being procured under the Unified Servicing and Data Solution effort, which is gaining momentum as FSA moves ahead with negotiations with prospective servicers. After awards are made, FSA will work with the new servicers to build out single sign-on functionality, which will provide borrowers with the ability to seamlessly move between servicer websites and StudentAid.gov. Over time, repayment functionality will be transitioned to StudentAid.gov, which will achieve the goal of having a single repayment portal.
• In August 2022, the Administration announced a one-time student loan debt relief program that would provide low- and middle-income Americans most likely to struggle repaying their student loans up to $20,000 in student debt relief. In just a few weeks, FSA implemented an agile, customer-driven approach to develop a process and form through which more than 26 million American applied. The form was simple, requiring only the applicants’ name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. Applying took less than five minutes and required no additional documentation - no forms to upload and no special log-in to remember. The application was accessible, available in English and Spanish, and on desktop and mobile.
  • Nearly 8 million borrowers were eligible to receive relief without applying—unless they choose to opt out—because relevant income data is already available to the U.S. Department of Education. The team put user needs at the center of all decisions, which led to significant positive feedback both from users and the public, press, and government tech community.
  • In a recent survey, 97% of Americans with student loans who applied for debt relief described the experience as positive and almost 70% very positive.
  • At present, court orders are preventing the Department of Education from providing the debt relief.

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall:

• The Department Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Digital Service (USDS) released the VA Health and Benefits mobile app. With over 1 million downloads and over 500k+ monthly users the app is proving to be a valuable tool to provide Veterans with quick, easy access to important services. Veterans can use the app to locate VA facilities, view or cancel their appointments, securely message their health care providers, view the status of their claim(s) and appeal(s), view payments, and access Veteran crisis services. On both Google Play and the Apple App Store, VA’s mobile app has ~4.6+ star combined ranking with 70,000 ratings. VA has also addressed accessibility for Veterans who do not have access to a smart device by providing a tablet to Veterans who need it to use VA’s mobile app.
• VA quickly stood up a digital front door to support implementation of the PACT Act (Pub. L. 117-168). Of the 117,800 Veterans who filed a PACT Act claim by November 2022, more than 24,000 provided feedback to VA–with 66.3% “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” with the statement “It was easy to file my PACT Act claim” and nearly 30% of respondents saying that they found out about applying through a notification from VA (on par with those that learned through a Veteran Service Officer or Organization). Further actions associated with the PACT Act include:
  • Communications and Outreach: VA created a customer touchpoint map and customer personas to use as foundational outreach tools to speak to customers in a way that builds trust and encourages Veterans and survivors to apply for PACT Act-related care and benefits.
  • Landing Page (VA.gov/pact): On August 11, 2022, the day after the bill was signed into law, VA.gov/PACT garnered more than 3.3 million views.
  • Call Centers: VA enhanced 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411)—an easy-to-remember telephonic front door for Veterans and their supporters—to include self-service PACT Act Frequently Asked Questions and seamless navigation to 24/7 live agents to address Veteran concerns.
  • Chatbot: Updated chatbot on VA.gov shortly after the enactment of the legislation, to be able to answer PACT questions and help with VA.gov navigation relating to PACT.

The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:

• To date, TSA has successfully launched four digital identity documents (IDs) with four different issuing authorities and enabled digital ID capabilities for TSA PreCheck^® passengers at 12 airports across the country through the use of TSA’s 2^nd generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2). The use of digital IDs will increase passenger privacy protections, enhance airport security effectiveness, and reduce the risk of encountering stolen or counterfeited physical IDs. For the full list of airports, participating states/issuing authorities, and eligible digital IDs, visit https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id.
  • All 10.2 million licensed drivers in Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland are now able to enroll in a mobile driver’s license (mDL) stored in Apple Wallet to use at select TSA PreCheck^® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
  • TSA also began processing TSA PreCheck^® passengers that presented their American Airlines digital ID stored on an Android or iOS device select TSA PreCheck^® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
  • TSA continues to onboard additional mDL states and digital ID partners. TSA is coordinating with state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs), National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and other stakeholders (e.g., International Organization for Standardization, International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC)) to align its digital identity strategies with industry standards and best practices to securely receive and authenticate digital ID information and verify a person’s identity.
• In addition, TSA is piloting facial identification technology, known as TSA PreCheck^®: Touchless Identity Solution. This technology streamlines the passenger journey for Trusted Travelers (e.g., TSA PreCheck^®, CBP Global Entry) who choose to participate at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) checkpoint and both the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) checkpoint and bag drop touchpoints. TSA PreCheck^®: Touchless Identity Solution uses CBP’s Traveler Verification Service to compare a live image taken to a gallery of pre-staged photos that the passenger previously provided to the Federal Government (e.g., U.S. Passport or Visa) for identification purposes.
  • Feedback from the pilot has been incredibly positive: “TSA’s airline partner reported 80% faster bag drop experience when passengers used TSA PreCheck^®: Touchless Identity Solution to check their bags.”
  • TSA is working to expand this capability to additional airports which will be announced at a later date.
• TSA is working to ensure the exploration of biometric and digital identity solutions is grounded in rigorous scientific study and analysis. TSA understands the importance of using these technologies carefully, and is committed to protecting passenger privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties and ensuring the public’s trust.

• TSA has institutionalized a CX training for the entire screening workforce to emphasize how customer service supports TSA’s security mission and which departments are available to support staff in customer service needs. “CX Demystified” was added to the TSO new hire basic training program at the TSA Academy in Glynco, GA in May. The training is also offered on a monthly basis to the entire screening workforce, via targeted trainings to airports requesting customized sessions, and to TSA’s red “covert testing” teams. Over 6,750 TSA employees have received this training by the end of December 2022.
• TSA has developed a live chat feature for tsa.gov and is working to obtain a virtual assistant to support the launch of this feature. The tsa.gov website currently receives four million unique monthly visitors. The addition of virtual assistant and live chat on tsa.gov would be capable of responding to up to 75% of the monthly inquiries coming into the TSA Contact Center. The public’s time will be greatly reduced from agent-assisted services as the virtual assistant will be available 24/7/365.

• In October 2022, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff from the Office of Administrator and Recovery Technology Program Division traveled to Fort Myers, FL to observe recovery efforts underway for Hurricane Ian. The observations, research, and designers’ firsthand experience of applicants’ pain points will be used as the basis to improve and simplify Disasterassistance.gov.
• FEMA increased translated content on FEMA.gov and Ready.gov to support over nine additional languages for key information concerning individual assistance and disaster preparedness.
• Additionally, FEMA launched a completely redesigned FEMA mobile app that is more accessible for people with disabilities and uses human-centered design principles to better support the disaster survivor experience.

• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through FEMA, has made it easier for survivors to navigate getting disaster assistance, particularly when it comes to providing documentation relating to ownership, occupancy, and self-certification. Through July 2, 2022, the expanded eligible ownership documentation resulted in an additional 43,283 survivors receiving and additional $199M in assistance. The expanded eligible occupancy documentation resulted in an additional 54,866 survivors receiving an additional $148M in assistance.
• Geospatial inspections (GIS), imagery, and models from Hurricane Ian substituted for wind-damage inspections for Individual Assistance and Public Assistance for the first time. 11% of cases were processed primarily using a machine learning algorithm without requiring an inspector--which represented the majority of destroyed or severely damaged homes.

The Administrator of the Small Business Administration shall:

• The Small Business Administration (SBA) has implemented Customer Feedback Surveys with our Office of Field Operations and Office of Government Contracting and Business Development to establish baseline metrics of customer satisfaction.

• SBA is building a new borrower portal that will make it easier for SBA borrowers to apply for, manage, and pay back loans. The portal will launch in Spring 2023 with loan servicing and e-billing functionality for SBA's 4 million direct borrowers.
• SBA has designed a new online application for disaster lending and is now working to build out and test the system. This application will build off the success of the recently launched VetCert platform and will be incorporated into the borrower portal in 2023.
• The disaster assistance application has been rewritten in plain language and streamline by removing unnecessary questions and decreasing the reading level from post-graduate to grade 8.

The Commissioner of Social Security shall:

• SSA reviewed all 3,000 statutory, regulatory, and sub-regulatory policy forms and identified 31 services requiring original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication and removed wet signature or in-person appearance requirements from three policies (with a fourth policy currently in evaluation). Those three updated policies are:
• Allowing Direct Express Debit Cardholders who want to change their direct deposit information to provide alternative verification over the phone.
• Allowing alternate verification methods for individuals who file an Internet application which is later identified as potentially fraudulent or anomalous claims.
• Modifying the memorandum of understanding with Treasury and Comerica by changing the consent-based process for Direct Express card holders so that individuals can call Comerica.

• In December 2022, SSA launched a redesign of SSA.gov, which serves over 180 million visitors per year, to improve customer service and ability to complete online business. This new website, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Digital Service, greets users with a task-focused site, is written in plain language, and has Spanish translations for every page.
• SSA partnered with the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) to use State marriage certificates to allow newlyweds in five participating States (Missouri, Arkansas, South Dakota, Georgia, and Wyoming) to apply for an updated Social Security card based on name change. The online application is short, uses electronic signatures, and can verify marriage status electronically. In the future, SSA plans to expand the online application process for name change due to marriage to additional States, based on available State data and other resources. With about 2 million marriages annually in the United States, SSA we estimate that 1.3 million people per year could benefit from this online service if participation were expanded to all States.

• SSA is determining an appropriate implementation plan that considers a number of factors prior to publishing a policy of technology neutrality.

• SSA inventoried more than 3,000 active agency forms to determine forms requiring a pen-and-ink signature. The SSA team gathered additional data points, including the basis for the pen-and-ink signature and whether alternative signature methods were also permitted. Since completing the inventory, SSA has prioritized forms/policies where either the signature requirement can be removed, or, an eSignature option could be added.

• SSA and USDA – Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a strengthened partnership to help connect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. USDA and SSA’s joint agreement, or memorandum of understanding, will improve efficiency, helping to advance food and nutrition security and reduce the hurdles families face to obtain the government assistance they need.  SSA employees notify SSI applicants and recipients of their eligibility for SNAP and take applications for food assistance when everyone in a household is applying for or receiving SSI.
• SSA released a new fact sheet on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other programs and resources for both English and Spanish speakers with limited income.

The Administrator of General Services shall:

• GSA has developed and is implementing a roadmap for USAGov to streamline its content and make it easier for the public to find and access government benefits, services, and programs in English and Spanish. A beta site for USAGov has been launched to test improvements and new features, and data is being collected to inform future improvements.
• GSA is working with the Department of Labor and OMB to do an analysis of Benefits.gov and develop a plan.

• The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO) at OMB and the General Services Administration (GSA) have been continuing to collaborate on how shared Federal digital products and services can be better designed and built to enable agencies to deliver a simple, seamless, and secure customer experience. GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) has developed a roadmap of the investments being made to improve shared digital services.
• The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) made its first project investments from the $100 million CX allocation to OFCIO and designated for technology projects that help streamline and improve public-facing digital services and agency systems. Ongoing updates on this commitment will be shared as part of the President’s Management Agenda on the Priority Area 2, Strategy 3 website.

• GSA is providing multi-disciplinary design and development teams to work directly with agency High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs) to help them advance their CX capabilities. Teams within GSA’s TTS have provided support to many HISPs as they work through their discovery efforts and plans to design and implement.

The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) shall:

• USAID launched WorkwithUSAID.org, which is a free resource hub that provides the knowledge and networks for organizations to work with USAID. On the platform, USAID has translated key resources into nine languages, including Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, and more. More than 2,600 organizations have taken the pre-engagement assessment to determine their readiness to partner with USAID. More than 3,350 organizations have registered in the Partner Directory, over 60% are local partners and nearly 80% have not worked with USAID before. To date, the website has had over 1.8 million pageviews and over 190,000 unique users.

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Administrator of General Services shall:

• In March 2022, Veterans Affairs successfully integrated GSA’s Login.gov for Veterans and their families to be able to securely access VA’s online services. Since the launch, Login.gov has enabled 1.2 million members of the Veterans community to access the online resources of VA.
• GSA and VA are working together to migrate the VA’s legacy credentialing systems to fully adopt the Login.gov platform as the sole federally hosted authentication system. Once completed, this will allow users whose identities were verified through the VA to transfer those credentials to a verified Login.gov account.

The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:

• The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment. Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
• For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
• FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.

The Director of OMB, including through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service, shall:

• The OMB CX Team, USDS, and Lab at OMB designers completed a multi-week discovery sprint to understand Tribal experiences accessing Federal grants. Throughout the project, the research team worked closely with the Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs from the Domestic Policy Council and the Interagency Policy Council on Support for Tribes related to the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. The IPC included representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency. You can read the report and learn more about the work on performance.gov/cx.

The Director of OMB, through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service; the Administrator of General Services; and the Postmaster General are encouraged to:

• GSA’s TTS has led preliminary meetings with USPS, OMB, and potential agency partners. The three agencies are scoping a focused discovery effort to identify barriers and solutions and are also looking into staffing.

The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:

• The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment. Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
• For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
• FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.

Additionally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has taken concrete steps in spirit of the Executive Order to improve Customer Experience of key services:

• In FY 2022, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) replaced a seven-year-old legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable a multichannel experience for customers to contact the FHA resource center. FHA has endured leveraging various legacy CRM systems since 2005 that prevented Housing from providing optimal customer service to our external partners.
• The FHA Resource Center project recently launched a pilot technology modernization project to improve the efficiency and productivity of telephone-based communication by enabling concurrent computer-based tasks—this pilot will be expanded to allow HUD employees to communicate with our customers more efficiently and effectively.
• The FHA Resource Center is in the process of developing a customer self-service portal to allow for lenders and program participants to easily submit FHA documents online. This will reduce costs and processing times.