The White House released Friday the initial Federal Program Inventory that brings together a list of programs run by federal agencies into one place on Performance.gov.
The inventory was created under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 to provide Congress and the public a clearer picture of the programs that exist across the federal government.
While information does exist about federal programs in a number of places, those areas tend to be siloed and decentralized, which inhibits coordination across agencies and cross-cutting analysis across programs.
The site starts with the largest federal agencies first in the beginning stages of the program.
This first phase, released May 31, provides information from the 24 largest federal agencies, and provides Congress, the public and other stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the way each agency has initially defined its programs on the inventory.
Starting with a broad definition used by the Government Accountability Office, each agency further defined program for purposes of the program inventory in a way that reflects the unique agency mission and operations and takes into account how the agency discusses its activities with Congress and other stakeholders.
For the initial inventory, each program includes a title, description and link to the strategic goals and objectives of the agency. Some agencies have also chosen to add additional information when available.
Additional information on agency programs is also available in agency Congressional Budget Justifications and performance plans and reports, and on the agency website.
In next year’s release, agencies will incorporate feedback on their program definitions, and will also centralize the inventory on Performance.gov and add additional information for each program. The inventory will then be updated each year, and will be expanded over time with links to additional sources of information.
