Gerry Wethington, president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), remembers when his group first met with their federal counterparts at the CIO Council. There was plenty of talk, but little action. Now, times have changed as both branches of government realize the need for coordination and integration between federal and state CIOs and their policies is greater than ever.

So when federal e-government czar Mark Forman picks up the phone, the states listen, and vice versa. "[NASCIO's] leadership talks with Mark Forman on a regular basis," said Wethington. "I know two weeks don't go by that we're not on the phone or in his office talking about particular issues."

Forman's position was one of the outcomes of The E-Government Act of 2002, which established a federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) within the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) Office of Electronic Government.

A key element in the federal government's e-government management structure is the CIO Council, which is the interagency forum for improving practices related to the design, acquisition, development, modernization, use, operation, sharing and performance of federal government information resources, according to the E-Government Act.


Get the CIOs Together
Primarily made up of CIOs from major federal agencies, such as the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education and Energy, the Council is chaired by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) deputy director for management, although Forman, administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, leads Council activities on the deputy director's behalf.

The Council recommends policies and standards, and serves as a central point through which best practices, innovative approaches and ideas can be filtered. The evolution of the CIO Council's role has followed the evolution of the CIO's role, according to Emory Miller, director of the Office of Professional Development at the General Services Administration (GSA). The Office of Professional Development serves an outreach role for the CIO Council.

"The Clinger-Cohen Act established a CIO in every department," Miller said. "But they were all very different when we began. Some were figureheads. Some had budgets. And then everybody said, 'Let's get the CIOs together,' because it seemed if we are all of the same feather, we would be able to share best practices and common interests, and we could develop guidance documents."

The Council, which was created by executive order, has been around since July 6, 1996. At first, many of the Council's efforts were aimed at educating others, explained Gary Winters, a senior policy analyst with the GSA. "A lot of what the Council did was get out there and let people know who we are, what we can do, what we mean by 'technology' and how that technology can be applied to improve our business practices," Winters said.

From that early informational and guidance role, the CIO Council matured into something more dynamic -- a tool to manage projects and initiatives.

Karen Evans, CIO for the Department of Energy and the Council's vice chair, also emphasized the Council's growing managerial role. In a memorandum marking her election to the CIO Council, she said the group of federal CIOs serves to both recommend policies to the OMB, and once those policies have been adopted, see to their implementation.

More specifically, Evans articulated the Council's mission as:

-providing input to OMB for formulation of policy;
-guiding the implementation of OMB policy;
-developing transaction standards for government;
-developing a governance process for IT architecture;
-developing work force training programs for IT project managers; and
-developing taxonomy and XML data definitions that apply across government.

"Originally you could see the CIO did not have a seat at the table," Winters said. "Now I think it's transitioned to the point where they not only have a