FMCSA was established within DOT in January 2000 and was tasked with promoting safe commercial motor vehicle operations and preventing large truck and bus crashes, injuries, and fatalities. The commercial motor carrier industry is a vital part of the U.S. economy and, as of December 2015, FMCSA estimated that there were 551,150 active carriers and approximately 6 million commercial drivers operating in the United States. The domestic commercial motor carrier industry covers a range of businesses, including private and for-hire freight transportation, passenger carriers, and specialized transporters of hazardous materials. These carriers also range from small carriers with only one vehicle that is owned and operated by a single individual, to large corporations that own thousands of vehicles. In carrying out its mission, FMCSA is responsible for four key safety service areas. Registration Services: Motor carriers are required to register with FMCSA; have insurance; and attest that they are fit, willing, and able to follow safety standards. Vehicles must be properly registered and insured with the state of domicile and are subject to random and scheduled inspections by both state and FMCSA agents. Drivers must have a valid commercial driver’s license issued by their state of residence and pass a physical examination as evidenced by a current valid medical card every 2 years. In calendar year 2015, there were 57,358 active interstate new entrant carriers that registered with FMCSA. Inspection Services: Conducting roadside inspections is central to FMCSA’s mission. States and, to a lesser extent, FMCSA staff, perform roadside inspections of vehicles to check for driver and maintenance violations and then provide the data from those inspections to the agency for analysis and determinations about a carrier’s safety performance. FMCSA also obtains data from the reports filed by state and local law enforcement officers when investigating commercial motor vehicle accidents or regulatory violations. The agency provides grants to states that may be used to offset the costs of conducting roadside inspections and improve the quality of the crash data the states report to it. In addition, the field offices in each state, known as divisions, have investigators who conduct compliance reviews of carriers identified by state inspection and other data as unsafe or at risk of being unsafe. FMCSA and its state partners conduct about 3.4 million inspections a year. Compliance Services: FMCSA monitors and ensures compliance with regulations governing both safety and commerce. The compliance review process is performed by safety auditors and investigators who collect safety compliance data by visiting a motor carrier’s location to review safety and personnel records. In the instances of new carriers entering the commercial market, FMCSA audits these carriers within 12 months of service. In 2015, FMCSA conducted 14,656 investigations and 30,000 new entrant safety audits, and sent about 21,000 warning letters. FMCSA uses data collected from motor carriers, federal and state agencies, and other sources to monitor motor carrier compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and Hazardous Materials Regulations. These data are also used to evaluate the safety performance of motor carriers, drivers, and vehicle fleets. The agency uses the data to characterize and evaluate the safety experience of motor carrier operations to help federal safety investigators focus their enforcement resources by identifying the highest-risk carriers, drivers, and vehicles. Enforcement Services: FMCSA is responsible for bringing legal action against companies that are not in compliance with motor carrier safety policies. In fiscal year 2015, FMCSA closed 4,766 enforcement cases. FMCSA’s estimated budget for fiscal year 2017 is approximately $794.2 million. The agency employs more than 1,000 staff members who are located in its Washington, D.C., headquarters, 4 regional service centers, and 52 division offices. FMCSA’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) oversees the development, implementation, and maintenance of the IT systems and infrastructure that serve as the key enabler in executing FMCSA’s mission. The CIO reports directly to the Chief Safety Officer within FMCSA’s Office of Information Technology. This office supports a highly mobile workforce by operating the agency’s field IT network of regional and state service centers, and ensuring that inspectors have the tools and mobile infrastructure necessary to perform their roadside duties. In addition, the office supports FMCSA headquarters, regional, and state service centers, which depend on the agency’s IT infrastructure including servers, laptops, desktops, printers, and mobile devices. Currently, the Office of Information Technology is undergoing a reorganization to establish an Office of the CIO. While a revised structure has been proposed, it has not yet been approved. Of its total budget, in fiscal year 2017, FMCSA’s expected IT budget is $58 million, of which approximately 60 percent ($34.4 million) is to be spent on the O&M of existing systems. In fiscal year 2013, the Office of Information Technology led an effort to establish a new IT portfolio that was intended to provide FMCSA with the ability to look across the investments in these portfolios and identify the linkages of business processes and strategic improvement opportunities to enhance mission effectiveness. To do so, the office implemented a product development team to integrate activities within and across the portfolio, interacting with business and program stakeholders. Specifically, it established four key safety process areas—registration, inspection, compliance, and enforcement—and two operations process areas—mission support systems and infrastructure. The registration portfolio includes systems that process and review applications for operating authority. The inspection portfolio includes systems that aid inspectors in conducting roadside inspections of large trucks and buses and ensure inspection data are available and useable. The compliance portfolio includes systems that help investigators to identify and investigate carriers for safe operations and maintain high safety standards to remain in the industry. The enforcement portfolio includes systems to assist the agency in ensuring that carriers and drivers are operating in compliance with regulations. The mission support portfolio includes systems and services that crosscut multiple portfolios. The infrastructure portfolio includes those systems that provide support services, hardware, software, licenses, and tools. As of August 2016, FMCSA had identified and categorized 40 investments in its IT portfolio, as described in table 1. According to the Acting CIO, by creating the IT portfolio, the agency determined that the functionality of these investments was not redundant, but that the aging legacy systems were in need of modernization. Further, the Acting CIO stated that the agency is planning to consolidate many of the systems that are in O&M, which, as of fiscal year 2016, had a combined cost of $2.9 million. FMCSA has acknowledged the need to upgrade its aging systems to improve data processing and data quality, and reduce system maintenance costs. Accordingly, in 2013, it began a modernization effort that includes both developing new systems and retiring legacy systems for each of its four key safety process areas—registration, inspection, compliance, and enforcement. To modernize its registration systems, in 2013, the agency began developing the URS system to streamline and strengthen the registration process. When fully implemented, URS is intended to replace the current registration systems with a single, online federal system. Program officials stated that the Licensing and Insurance system, Operations Authority Management system, and the registration function in MCMIS are to be retired upon URS’s deployment. The Acting CIO stated that the agency has not determined when URS will be fully deployed. To modernize its inspection systems, FMCSA began planning efforts in 2014 to develop Integrated Inspection Management System (IIMS), which is intended to provide inspectors with a single system to perform checks. As of May 2017, the agency was still in the planning stage of this effort, as it was assessing the current state of its inspection processes and data management systems, and planning to issue a report detailing actions the agency needs to take. According to officials from the Office of Information Technology, subsequent to this report, a detailed analysis will be conducted, including development of acquisition and development plans. According to agency officials, its six operational inspection systems—Query Central, Safety and Fitness Electronic Records, SAFETYNET, Aspen, Inspection Selection System, and Commercial Driver’s License Information System Access—are intended to be retired upon deployment of IIMS. To modernize its compliance systems, FMCSA began developing Sentri 2.1. According to the Acting CIO, the agency’s three legacy compliance systems—ProVu, National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners, and Compliance Analysis and Performance Review Information—are to be retired upon deployment of Sentri 2.1. As of May 2017, agency officials from the Office of Information Technology stated they have stopped the development of Sentri 2.1. To modernize its enforcement systems, FMCSA intends to migrate the functionality of its current enforcement systems into an existing mission support system. Specifically, the functionality of FMCSA’s three operational enforcement systems—CaseRite, Electronic Management Information System, and Uniform Fine Assessment—is to be migrated into its Portal system, which is a website that provides users a single sign-on to access applications. The agency did not provide a date for when this effort is expected to be completed. A federal agency’s ability to effectively and efficiently maintain and modernize its existing IT environment depends, in large part, on how well it employs certain IT management controls, including strategic planning. Strategic planning is essential for an agency to define what it seeks to accomplish, identify strategies to efficiently achieve the desired results, and effectively guide modernization efforts. Key elements of IT strategic planning include establishing a plan with well-defined goals, strategies, measures, and timelines to guide these efforts. Our prior work stressed that an IT strategic plan should define the agency’s vision and provide a road map to help align information resources with business strategies and investment decisions. Additionally, as we have previously reported, effective modernization planning is essential.