VanRoekel Bullish On OMB Digital Service's Potential

As attention turned to the Office of Management and Budget with President Barack Obama announcing the nomination of Shaun Donovan as director of OMB, the office of the federal CIO at OMB was making a splash for a different reason. Pending congressional approval, OMB is planning to create a 25-person team to serve as a policy counterpart to the General Services Administration's newly formed 18F tech development incubator. In a May 23 interview with FCW, U.S. CIO Steve VanRoekel discussed the progress so far and the impact he hopes to see.

The planning and piloting process for this Digital Service has been going on for much of the spring, but the scale-out effort remains on hold pending approval by congressional appropriators. OMB's digital services team will be working with the 18F team VanRoekel said, and directly with agencies on some of their most high-priority initiatives...