Technology Modernization Fund Allocates $50M to Improve Customer Experience and Data Protection -

The U.S. Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) has made five new investments valued at $50.5 million intended to improve data security and upgrade user experience across federal government websites.

Three of the awards are intended to improve digital service delivery at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), making it easier for users to access information, records and services.

How the Money Will be Used

The other two propose to enhance the cybersecurity protection of data and applications that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rely on to provide critical services and information to the American public.

A $16.2 million TMF investment expects the NTSB to build a unified digital experience that makes it easy to find, understand, and use information related to investigations and safety recommendations.
A $9.2 million TMF investment aims to enable the BLM to introduce optical character recognition and natural language processing. The project will improve the user experience through efficient and accurate data retrieval and improved document images from a redesign of the public-facing web application.
With a $15.2 million TMF investment, DOL proposes to accelerate the implementation and deployment of a cloud-based security framework to provide connectivity, consistent security, and optimized user experience to its employees, partners, and the public.
The VA has received $7.4 million through the TMF to help modernize the user experience by eliminating repetition and making clinical and other decisions easier for VA health care providers, resulting in better benefit outcomes.
The EPA has received a $2.5 million TMF investment to add contractor personnel and resources to modernize an aging infrastructure and bring the program into agency compliance.

Clare Martorana, federal chief information officer and TMF board chair, explained that investments are designed to enable agencies to make their digital ecosystems “more secure and resilient” and deliver a “digital experience” that meets today’s standards.

“The TMF investments we’re announcing today demonstrate that when we make smart, sound technical investments, we can maximize the impact of taxpayer dollars and propel agencies to work more efficiently and improve service delivery for the millions of Americans counting on them.”

45 Investments, 27 Federal Agencies Served

The TMF now manages more than $750 million for 45 investments across 27 federal agencies. That includes allocations made this past April to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement zero-trust solutions for networking, identity management, and security operations, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernize and remediate legacy applications used to deliver administrative and mission-support services and migrate critical business applications to the cloud.

The TMF was authorized by the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017. It has received $225 million through the annual budget process and $1 billion through the American Rescue Plan to fund modernization projects.

Agencies submit IT-related project proposals for the Board to review and consider.