While the White House had a rather tough time when it came to rolling out the website that went along with the Affordable Care Act, it is hoping its second rollout will be the charm when it comes to technology embraced by the public. On Monday, the White House announced that it is formally launching a new U.S. Digital Service, and it has hired Mikey Dickerson to run it.
The administration clearly trusts Dickerson, considering he is being credited with saving HealthCare.gov after the launch was widely recognized as horrible. This time, Dickerson will be working on something brand new, with the stated goal of institutionalizing the approach that ended up saving the Affordable Health Care Act’s website.
While the launch was earlier this week, the idea of this office has been floating around the administration for quite a while. The federal chief information officer, Steve VanRoekel, was testifying in front of the Homeland Security Committee, and called the formation of the team that will be charged with, “removing barriers to exceptional Government service delivery and remaking the digital experiences that citizens and businesses have with their Government."
VanRoekel has said that people should look at this new formation as a kind of management consultant that helps the government and others see the gaps and offer up teams of people who can fix those gaps and fill them in before they cause trouble. This kind of approach would have been rather helpful when the Affordable Care Act was in its infancy.
Officially called the USDS, the final goal of this particular department is to make sure that at the end of the day, people are able to run things cheaper and faster.
Edited by
Adam Brandt
