Executive order 13794: American Technology Council

What the Executive Order Says

Executive Order 13794 is entitled "Establishment of the American Technology Council".

Section 1

This states that the policy of the government is the efficient, secure and economical use of Information Technology in the execution of providing services to citizens.  These three principles are competing against each other and a real issue is to find an adequate balance between them.  Given the recent news of cyber attacks and the constant stream of announcements regarding data breaches and compromises, one would think that security would be paramount.  However, the extra infrastructure and apparent hassle to implement two factor authentication for all citizen logins into government web services would not be economical or efficient.

Section 2

This section is a single sentence which announces the establishment of the American Technology Council (ATC).

Section 3

This section defines the 18 different permanent members of the ATC.  Usually there is a caveat in these kinds of initiatives that the head of the agency can appoint a permanent delegate of one of their senior officers.  This seems to be missing, so unless there are regular cabinet meetings at which this ATC will append their meetings, it would be difficult to get a quorum of members of out such a high level group.

Section 4

This section allows that anyone can be invited to attend meetings from time to time.

Section 5

This section defines that the president, vice-president or the director of the ATC shall preside over meetings of the ATC.

Section 6

This section defines the functions of the ATC and has 3 subsections.  The first lays out the main functions of this newly established body.  It is intended to be a forum in which co-ordination and co-operation across departments.  The body is expected, where appropriate to make recommendations to the President regarding policy such as laws and regulations.  Finally, it is also intended to have a certain amount of oversight function regarding the implementation of Information Technology.
The next 2 subsections limit the scope of the ATC such that it is not to get involved in systems related to national security (where this is defined in 44 USC 3552(b)(6) ) nor impede the existing directives to the OMB..

Section 7

This section has 4 subsections which deal with certain administrative matters.  One thing that is defined is that the Director of the ATC is within the Office of the President in the organizational chart.  There are also 2 specific subgroups defined which are a senior interagency forum and a deputies committee.

Section 8

This section is a sunset clause set to expire at the end of the term of the current President.

Section 9

This section includes the necessary legal caveats to assure the constitutionality of the Executive Order.

My commentary

Cybersecurity is an important topic these days not only for government, but also for businesses and individuals.  Balancing against that is the continued focus to deliver government services over the internet through various means such as web pages, apps, and email with the ensuing savings and convenience.  I would be rather surprised to learn that there was no interagency forum in the executive branch that dealt with Information Technology and the broad aims.  It is possible that the intention of the authors of this EO was to capture some of the existing groups under this EO, but often that would mean a change to laws and regulations from where these groups were established.
Fundamentally, the success or failure of this kind of group is a function of leadership and resources.  If the correct leader is appointed, the group can become productive, but only if there are resources to sustain it.  This EO establishing the ATC only briefly mentions that the Director is a member of the Executive Office of the President.  However, there is no funding statement for staff and related expenses.  There needs to be a budget line item also.
Finally, I would say that there is no specific vision expressed beyond a vague idea to make things better.  Clearly, security is the biggest concern but implementing good security will come at a cost in hardware, software and administration as well as a reduction in usability of the services delivered in a virtual manner.  One question is whether or not there could be more US government apps created or perhaps a "mother" app which then has modules for the different agencies.  There are clear questions as to whether this EO will make things better, cynicism suggests no, but I hope to be proven wrong.