USDA affects the lives of all Americans and millions of people around the world. Created 133 years ago to conduct research and disseminate information, USDA’s role has been expanded to include, among other things, providing billions of dollars annually to support farm incomes; developing agricultural markets abroad to boost domestic farm production and exports; ensuring a safe food supply; managing and conserving the nation’s forests, water, and farmland; and providing education and supplemental resources to the needy to improve diet and nutrition. USDA’s challenge is to meet its responsibilities as it also adapts to a rapidly changing global marketplace. During 1994, USDA delivered services through 43 agencies and a network of more than 14,000 field offices. Pursuant to Public Law 103-354, the Secretary of Agriculture reorganized the Department by reducing the number of component agencies from 43 to 29. The Secretary has also announced plans to reduce the number of county field offices by about 1,200 over the next 3 years. To carry out its missions, the Department and its component agencies reported budget outlays of about $61 billion in fiscal year 1994, according to the President’s fiscal year 1996 budget request. Like other federal agencies, USDA’s agencies rely on telecommunications networks and systems to accomplish missions and serve customers. The Department and its agencies deliver USDA services through thousands of field offices in states, cities, and counties. These offices acquire and use various types of telecommunications services and equipment to meet mission needs. Because telecommunications plays a vital role at USDA, it is imperative for the Department to plan and manage all its telecommunications resources effectively and prudently. According to the Department’s January 1993 Information Resources Management (IRM) Strategic Plan, telecommunications systems that provide quick and reliable voice and data communication throughout the Department are critical to USDA’s success in carrying out its many missions and necessary for building a network infrastructure capable of sharing information whenever and wherever it is needed. The effective and prudent use of telecommunications technology is also critical to the success of USDA’s efforts to streamline and consolidate its field office structure and reduce operational costs. USDA reports show that it spends about $100 million annually for telecommunications. This includes about $37 million for FTS 2000 services in fiscal year 1994. USDA is required to use FTS 2000 network services for basic long-distance communications (i.e., the inter-Local Access and Transport Area (LATA) transport of voice and data communications traffic). Under the federal government’s FTS 2000 contract, USDA agencies and offices use basic switched service for voice, packet switched service for data, video transmission service, and other types of services to support their communications needs. In addition to FTS 2000, USDA estimates that during fiscal year 1994 it spent another $50 million on local telecommunications and other services obtained from about 1,500 telephone companies. USDA agencies and offices use these services to meet their local telephone and data communications needs within LATAs. Other telecommunications services obtained from commercial carriers that are not available under the FTS 2000 contract, such as satellite communications, are also included in these costs. USDA also estimates that between $10 million and $30 million is spent annually on telecommunications equipment, such as electronic switches and telephone plant wiring, and support services, such as maintenance for acquired telecommunications equipment. The Federal Information Resources Management Regulation and USDA’s Telecommunications Policy (DR-3300-1) require that USDA’s agencies maximize use of all government telecommunications resources to achieve optimum service at the lowest possible cost. In addition, Section 215 of the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, requires USDA to reduce expenses by jointly using resources at field offices where two or more agencies reside. This includes sharing telecommunications services and equipment. Also, section 216 of this act requires that whenever USDA procures or uses information technology it should do so in a manner that promotes computer information sharing among its agencies. The senior USDA IRM official—the Assistant Secretary for Administration—has delegated responsibility for managing all aspects of the Department’s telecommunications program to the OIRM Director. According to federal regulations, this responsibility includes the following to ensure that telecommunications resources are maximized at the lowest possible cost: develop departmental telecommunications guidelines and regulations necessary to implement approved principles, policies, and objectives, review and evaluate telecommunications activities for conformance with all applicable federal and USDA telecommunications policies, plans, procedures, and guidelines, develop and implement a telecommunications planning system that integrates short- and long-term objectives and coordinates agency and staff office initiatives in support of these objectives, and monitor agencies’ network systems acquisition and development efforts to ensure effective and economic use of resources and compatibility among systems of various agencies. At USDA, component agencies manage the acquisition and use of telecommunications services and equipment on a day-to-day basis. Because of this, OIRM is principally responsible for providing departmentwide telecommunications policy and direction and monitoring the agencies’ activities to ensure their compliance. For example, in December 1993, OIRM’s Telecommunications Policy Division consolidated all existing telecommunications policy into a comprehensive directive—Departmental Directive 3300-1—which is USDA’s current policy in this area. Also, in September 1993, OIRM and the Office of Assistant Secretary for Administration developed USDA’s first departmentwide Strategic Telecommunications Plan. According to USDA policy, this Plan shall serve as guidance to the agencies for developing their respective agency telecommunications plans. With respect to monitoring telecommunications, USDA established a IRM Review Program, as required by federal law, to periodically review component agencies’ information and telecommunications management activities. According to the Federal Information Resources Management Regulation, such a program is intended to, among other things, (1) ensure agencies comply with governmentwide and departmentwide telecommunications policies, regulations, rules, standards, and guidelines, (2) ensure agencies efficiently acquire and effectively use resources, and (3) determine whether agencies’ controls over and reviews of their telecommunications resources provide effective management oversight. To do this, USDA policy requires OIRM to conduct periodic reviews at each of USDA’s agencies. In addition, OIRM established its Agency Liaison Officer (ALO) Program in late 1992 to, among other things, strengthen coordination of the agencies’ telecommunications projects and planning to ensure that there are not unnecessary barriers to information exchange. In doing so, OIRM obtained additional staff and made them responsible for (1) analyzing IRM programs to ensure that they are consistent with Department goals and objectives and (2) maintaining an understanding of an agency’s plans for information and telecommunications technology investments to ensure there is adequate departmentwide coordination. Moreover, under its technical approval authority, OIRM reviews and approves component agency requests for procurements of telecommunications resources. Telecommunications management practices vary widely across USDA agencies because the agencies independently plan, acquire, operate, and manage telecommunications resources—equipment and services—in accordance with their own organizational and mission needs. In this regard, commercial telecommunications services that USDA agencies obtain from over 1,500 vendors across the nation are acquired and managed locally, regionally, or centrally depending on the agency. For example, the Consolidated Farm Service Agency (CFSA) has nearly 3,000 county offices that individually acquire commercial telecommunications services from private vendors. This contrasts with the Forest Service, whose 9 regional offices acquire commercial telecommunications services for about 725 local offices, and the Agriculture Marketing Service, whose headquarters office acquires commercial telecommunications services centrally for its field offices. With some exceptions, bills for commercial telephone calls, leased equipment, and other services for USDA’s component agencies are paid centrally by USDA’s National Finance Center (NFC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. NFC is reimbursed for these costs by the agencies after the bills are paid. USDA’s component agencies also manage FTS 2000 services differently. For example, some agencies, such as CFSA, have a few Designated Agency Representatives (DARs) responsible for centrally acquiring FTS 2000 services for the entire agency. However, others, such as the Forest Service and the Rural Economic and Community Development (RECD) agency, have numerous DARs that order FTS 2000 services for offices in specific geographical areas. Bills for all FTS 2000 services acquired and used by USDA’s component agencies are paid directly to the General Services Administration. Just as USDA component agencies acquire and manage telecommunications resources differently, they also plan and develop telecommunications networks separately in support of their agency-specific missions. These networks include telecommunications systems that support local office communications, regional communications between agency offices, and nationwide networks. Historically, USDA agencies have had difficulty sharing information electronically because they independently acquired information technology and networks that were not intended to address the organizational sharing needs of the Department. As far back as October 1989, we reported that while many USDA agencies shared responsibility for policy issues, such as food safety or water quality, they often were incapable of sharing information electronically due to their stovepipe systems. Because of this, we noted that USDA managers had difficulty carrying out programs to effectively address issues that cut across traditional agency boundaries. For example, nine separate USDA agencies shared responsibility for water quality. However, agencies could not easily share information across the separate network systems these agencies had installed. Therefore, USDA’s water quality programs suffered because critically important information, necessary to effectively carry out these programs, often remained inaccessible outside an agency and was under utilized throughout the Department. In late 1993, USDA surveyed its employees and received over 8,000 suggestions for operating more efficiently. Many respondents said the information sharing problems adversely affected program delivery and was a significant problem for the Department. Specifically, many respondents reported that USDA’s information systems and networks have too often developed along program and agency lines, causing information “islands” to develop across the Department. At the request of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, we reviewed the effectiveness of USDA’s management and planning of telecommunications.