In November 2007, Senator Barack Obama announced his intention, if elected President, to appoint a federal chief technology officer (CTO). On April 18, 2009, President Obama appointed Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh P. Chopra to serve as "America's Chief Technology Officer." Mr. Chopra serves as assistant to the President and CTO, and holds the position of associate director for technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In his capacity as assistant to the President and CTO, Mr. Chopra also serves as a member of the White House Domestic Policy Council under a provision of Executive Order 13500 (amending Executive Order 12859) issued by President Obama on February 5, 2009. In announcing the appointment of Mr. Chopra, President Obama broadly defined the role of the CTO as promoting "technological innovation to help achieve our most important priorities—from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure." This report presents President Obama's vision for the CTO position put forth during his campaign for the presidency and during the presidential transition. It also discusses the potential scope of duties and authorities of the CTO, articulates organizational precedents and challenges for the CTO, reviews some of the activities undertaken by Aneesh Chopra during his tenure as CTO, and identifies issues Congress may choose to consider if it opts to exert oversight or to develop legislation to create the position and/or office of the CTO. In 2008, Barack Obama's presidential campaign issued a position paper on the issue of technology and innovation which included the following description of the role envisioned for a CTO: Bring Government into the 21 st Century: Barack Obama will use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Obama believes in the American people and in their intelligence, expertise, and ability and willingness to give and to give back to make government work better. Obama will appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21 st century. The CTO will ensure the safety of our networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices. The CTO will have a specific focus on transparency, by ensuring that each arm of the federal government makes its records open and accessible as the E-Government Act requires. The CTO will also focus on using new technologies to solicit and receive information back from citizens to improve the functioning of democratic government. The CTO will also ensure technological interoperability of key government functions. For example, the Chief Technology Officer will oversee the development of a national, interoperable wireless network for local, state and federal first responders as the 9/11 commission recommended. This will ensure that fire officials, police officers and [emergency medical technicians] from different jurisdictions have the ability to communicate with each other during a crisis and we do not have a repeat of the failure to deliver critical public services that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In November 2008, President-elect Obama reiterated his intentions for the CTO on Change.gov, the website of the Office of the President-elect: Bring Government into the 21 st Century: Use technology to reform government and improve the exchange of information between the federal government and citizens while ensuring the security of our networks. Appoint the nation's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure the safety of our networks and lead an interagency effort, working with chief technology and chief information officers of each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices. Prior to Mr. Chopra's appointment, details related to the CTO position remained uncertain. There was little or no information on the specific duties and authorities of the CTO and how its functions will be coordinated and integrated within OSTP, with other White House offices, and with federal departments and agencies. During this period, some commentators speculated about the range of duties and authorities the CTO may be given (see discussion on pages 3-5 of this report). While many details remain uncertain about the CTOs role, some aspects have become more clear as Mr. Chopra has undertaken initiatives, testified before Congress, and given interviews (see " CTO Structure and Activities in the Obama Administration "). A fundamental question for policymakers related to the CTO position is: What should be the scope of duties and authorities of this position? Two broad roles for the CTO appear to have emerged. The first role, explicitly articulated on President Obama's campaign and transition websites, might be described as a supra-chief information officer with the mission of using information technology to improve the delivery of government services, increasing transparency of government policymaking, and opening channels for increased citizen participation in government, as well as ensuring that the nation's information and communications infrastructure is robust and secure. In this capacity, the CTO would also ensure that "best practices" are identified, shared, and implemented across agencies. The second role for the CTO might be described as an advocate for technological innovation in support of national interests such as economic growth, job creation, improvements to quality of life, national defense, and homeland security. President Obama's dual appointment of Mr. Chopra to serve as both CTO and OSTP associate director for technology, and his statement accompanying the selection, positioned Mr. Chopra to undertake such a role. Prior to Mr. Chopra's appointment, several analysts proposed a variety of roles for an Obama administration CTO. Stanford University professor Lawrence Lessig asserted that the CTO could play an important role in bringing an understanding of how technology might be used to address national challenges: The CTO could be a critically important position, from deciding how to make government more efficient and transparent through technology, to helping advance public policy questions like those surrounding global warming. The CTO could play an important role in national economic policy according to Andrew D. Lipman, a telecommunications attorney with Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Mr. Lipman asserted that [President] Obama sees greater broadband penetration as an enormous economic engine, much like the railroads were a century ago. That is why the CTO will play such a critical role in any recovery plan. Ed Felten, a Princeton University professor of computer science and public affairs and director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, likewise suggested a broad role for the CTO in innovation policy: The CTO could act as the cybersecurity czar, ensuring that reliability of the government infrastructure is protected. And much like the role of the presidential science advisor, the CTO could offer advice to the President on all areas of technology. The role could be a catalyst to push us closer to being a more entrepreneurial, high-tech country. The Center for American Progress (CAP) and New Democracy Project (NDP), public policy institutes, proposed that the CTO serve as a champion for information and communications technologies broadly. CAP/NDP proposed that the CTO be given three roles: advising the President on the use of ICT to create a more open and efficient government; working with OSTP to advise the President on all issues that have a critical ICT component, including economic, national security, health care, and education policies; and helping to ensure ICT platforms deployed across the United States are robust, broadly available, and affordable to all sectors. CAP/NDP anticipate this latter role would "straddle the public and private sectors" to maximize private innovation for the public good. In contrast, the Association of American Universities (AAU), an association of research universities, recommended to President Obama that a CTO be given a more narrow role: If a new Chief Technology Officer position is created, this individual's responsibilities primarily should be to oversee the use of technology within the White House and to coordinate the use of technology within the Executive Branch. In addition, the AAU urged that OSTP remain the sole presidential advisor for science and technology: [The president should] retain a single presidential advisor for science and technology with a strong associate director for technology and innovation.... The responsibility for coordinating and helping to shape science and technology policy across government agencies should remain that of the OSTP Director, as has historically been the case. Three factors are likely to play key roles in defining the full scope of duties and authorities of the CTO: first, the role that President Obama wants the CTO to play (including authorities derived from formal means, such as an executive order, and non-formal means, such as presidential expressions of support for, and confidence in, the CTO); second, congressional oversight of any actions by the Obama Administration; and, third, statutory duties and authorities, if any, that Congress may elect to confer upon the position and/or office. Further, the personal attributes of the CTO may, in part, define the role of CTO. In this regard, Mr. Chopra served as Virginia's Secretary of Technology where he led "the Commonwealth's strategy to effectively leverage technology in government reform, to promote Virginia's innovation agenda, and to foster technology-related economic development." Previously, Chopra served as managing director of the Advisory Board Company, a public company that provides best practices research and analysis to the health care industry. He led the firm's Financial Leadership Council and the Working Council for Health Plan Executives. In defining or refining the duties and authorities of the CTO, Congress and the Obama Administration may opt to draw from the duties and authorities of existing and previous organizational structures and positions.