Imagine Nation ELC 2019: EEOC, USDA Receive the Latest TMF Awards

Projects from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are the newest recipients of money from the Technology Modernization Fund, Federal CIO Suzette Kent announced Monday.

The Technology Modernization Board now funds nine projects across six agencies; this is the third award for USDA. Other agencies on the receiving end include the General Services Administration and the Labor, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development departments.

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The EEOC will receive $4 million to modernize its case management system, which handles about 200,000 inquiries per year and currently relies on “precise alphanumeric codes rather than plain language” to record the case information.

USDA will get $8 million to modernize the Agricultural Marketing Service’s specialty crops system, which inspects and certifies more than 10.7 billion pounds of processed fruits and vegetables and 49.9 billion pounds of fresh produce, much of which goes to school lunches and military combat rations.

Federal CIO Urges Agencies to ‘Keep Swinging’ for TMF Money

“These are two projects that were operating on paper-based processes to serve citizens,” Kent said at Imagine Nation ELC 2019 in Philadelphia on Monday. “And one of them even used triplicate copy forms. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even know where you can buy triplicate copy forms anymore.”

The TMF provides loans for IT modernization and improvement projects; it has given out nearly $70 million since the program was established in 2018. The Technology Modernization Board has seen more than 50 proposals so far, “and would love to see more,” she said. “Just keep swinging.”

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