USDA’s CBAs provide services such as farm loans and conservation assistance along with rural and economic development help. Under the E- File Act, these agencies were required to establish an electronic filing and retrieval system enabling farmers and other agricultural producers to access departmental forms, such as farm loan applications, via the Internet by December 18, 2000. Along with the December 18 deadline for establishing the forms-retrieval system, the Secretary of Agriculture was also to report to Congress by that date on progress made in implementing the act. The law further mandated that by June 20, 2002, agricultural producers be able to file paperwork electronically with USDA if they choose to do so. RMA administers the federal crop insurance program, which helps protect producers against losses due to drought, flooding, and other unavoidable causes. By December 1, 2000, it was to submit to Congress a plan for enabling producers to obtain forms and information, such as crop insurance applications and production and yield reports, over the Internet. Implementation of the plan is to be completed by December 1, 2001. In addition to addressing the mandates of the Freedom to E-File Act, USDA is—like other agencies—preparing to implement plans in accordance with the GPEA. To develop and implement USDA’s e-file capabilities, on August 30, 2000, the Secretary of Agriculture issued a memorandum to the undersecretaries of the affected agencies and assigned them and mission area leaders with collective responsibility. The Secretary’s memorandum also required that one shared plan be developed and implemented to meet E-File Act requirements. The Secretary gave the Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO) the role of coordinating and facilitating e-file implementation planning and required that the plan be submitted to OCIO no later than September 30, 2000. In response to the Secretary’s directive, the undersecretaries transmitted a “Mission Area Report on Freedom to E-File Legislation” to OCIO on October 17, 2000. While providing general information, it lacked specifics on activities and milestones, dependencies among USDA activities, and needed resources. It also did not assign a senior-level official with overall accountability for managing and ensuring the implementing disparate e-file activities. To address their e-file requirements, the CBAs had two separate interagency teams working together to meet the act’s December 18, 2000, deadline—one consolidating and developing electronic forms and the other building a technical infrastructure for expanding Internet use. For example, the CBAs purchased an on-line common forms software tool for creating electronic forms, selected forms to post on the Web, and designed and begun implementing a common Internet Web site. At the time of our November briefing, the CBAs still needed to obtain OMB approval for each electronic form, complete testing of the Web page, train county-based field staff in the new e-file procedures, publicize the department’s e-file services, and notify the public on how to use them. The CBAs progress in meeting the E-File Act’s December 18 deadline was discussed in a report to Congress signed by the Secretary of Agriculture on December 22, 2000. Our review found that, by the December 18 deadline, the CBAs had successfully established a common Internet Web site, obtained OMB approval for 52 FSA and NRCS forms, and placed them on the Internet. However, none of the 100-plus RD forms that the CBAs expected to have deployed on the Web site by the deadline were available. According to USDA documentation, OMB had not approved these forms because some forms appeared to be for the department’s internal use, did not have clear and user-friendly instructions, or did not include forms instructions that conformed to the format standard established by OMB and the agencies. As of December 31, 2000, RD had not resubmitted any of its forms for OMB review. A marketing brochure, being developed by the CBAs to promote public awareness of the e-file effort, was still in production at the end of December 2000, and the CBAs had decided not to issue any press releases publicizing the new e-file Web site. In addition, because the CBAs decided that training needs for service center employees were minimal at this phase of the project, informational directives on the new program were provided to employees in lieu of giving them training. Fully meeting all remaining e-file mandates to successfully establish effective and secure electronic filing capabilities by June 2002 poses far more complex and difficult tasks for USDA, such as reengineering business processes and establishing reliable and secure methods of transmitting and storing all electronic records. Moreover, since the E-File Act requires USDA to continue providing services through non electronic means as well, the department will also face increased workload demands supporting dual service delivery functions—one electronic and one paper-based. At the end of our review in December 2000, USDA did not have a detailed plan for how it would implement these actions and had not identified how much funding or what staff resources would be required to carry out them out. In response to the E-File Act, RMA began work on the required December 1, 2000, plan for allowing agricultural producers the option of obtaining, over the Internet from approved insurance providers, all forms and other information, and filing all paperwork required for participation electronically. RMA’s initial efforts focused on establishing and distributing guidelines and policies for crop insurance providers to follow in meeting their e-file responsibilities. By the time of our November briefing, RMA had issued its final e-file guidelines. RMA met the December 1, 2000, deadline for submitting a plan to Congress. This plan outlines the process the agency will use to ensure that insurance providers comply with the act’s e-file requirements. Specifically, insurance providers must follow RMA’s issued guidelines and submit a completed e-business plan to RMA for approval no later than April 1, 2001. RMA said it expects full implementation, as the act requires, by December 1, 2001. USDA has made progress and has partially met initial E-File Act deadlines for providing agricultural producers with access to forms via the Internet and submitting required reports on initial e-file activities and plans to Congress. However, implementing full e-filing capabilities for all its farm service customers by the deadlines set by the act poses a far more complex and difficult challenge. A component critical to the success of any such initiative is the necessary authority and responsibility to manage it across different departmental entities, yet no single official has been so designated. Also, a comprehensive implementation plan—one that addresses both GPEA, the Freedom to E-File Act requirements, and OMB’s implementation guidelines—is critical to help the department achieve a more consistent approach in its entire e-government transformation. To ensure that USDA fully meets its E-File Act mandates, we recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture assign a senior-level official with overall responsibility, authority, and accountability for managing and carrying out implementation for both CBAs and RMA E-File Act requirements; direct the assigned official to work with RD and OMB to expedite resubmission and approval of all appropriate RD forms and ensure that these forms are made available over the Internet as soon as possible; and direct the assigned official, in cooperation with the undersecretaries for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service, Natural Resources and Environment, and Rural Development, and the OCIO, to develop and document a comprehensive plan for implementing all E-File Act requirements. In developing the department’s comprehensive plan, we further recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture direct the assigned senior official to document and track all critical activities and milestones, dependencies among major activities, and resources needed to complete these efforts. In addition, the plan should clearly describe all project tasks, their priorities, and time frames and milestones for their completion; assign task responsibilities to staff and show critical dependencies identify required staff/budget resources for completing the plan; and document contingency actions planned to address unforeseen work delays or problems. We also recommend that the Secretary direct the assigned senior official to include both e-file and GPEA requirements in the department’s comprehensive plan to help better coordinate actions across USDA agencies and apply a consistent approach for addressing all mandated requirements and deadlines during USDA’s e-file government transformation. Finally, we recommend that the Secretary hold the senior official accountable for carrying out the comprehensive plan and require that this official provide quarterly reports to the Secretary describing the results of USDA’s efforts to implement each of these actions and all e-file requirements. On November 8, 2000, we provided a copy of our briefing materials, which were used in preparing this report, to USDA’s CIO, deputy CIO, and officials representing USDA’s CBAs and RMA. These officials generally agreed with our briefing. They stated that providing more focused leadership and having a comprehensive implementation plan for the e-file effort would increase the department’s overall chances of success with fully implementing the Freedom to E-File Act. In its December 22, 2000, progress report to Congress, and consistent with our recommendations, USDA said that it plans to begin an effort to develop comprehensive project plans for enhanced services that meet the 2-year requirements of the Freedom to E-File Act and GPEA in January 2001. On February 13, 2001, USDA’s Acting CIO provided written comments on a draft of this report. USDA’s comments are summarized below and reproduced in appendix II. USDA said that it fully supports the spirit and intent, as well as the legal mandates, of the e-file act. USDA agreed that it had problems meeting the act’s initial December 18, 2000, deadline for deploying electronic forms on the Internet and that significant challenges remain to fully implement the act. USDA also stated that successful implementation of the act will require continued funding, along with understanding and support of the USDA’s programs or “owners” of the business being transformed. USDA agreed with our recommendation for making RD forms available on the Internet as soon as possible.