Executive Order 13111
(Clinton) About Executive Orders
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 12, 1999
EXECUTIVE ORDER 13111
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USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Advances in technology and increased skills needs are changing
the workplace at an ever increasing rate. These advances can make
Federal employees more productive and provide improved service to our
customers, the American taxpayers. We need to ensure that we continue
to train Federal employees to take full advantage of these
technological advances and to acquire the skills and learning needed to
succeed in a changing workplace. A coordinated Federal effort is
needed to provide flexible training opportunities to employees and to
explore how Federal training programs, initiatives, and policies can
better support lifelong learning through the use of learning technology.
To help us meet these goals, I am creating a task force on
Federal training technology, directing Federal agencies to take certain
steps to enhance employees' training opportunities through the use of
training technology, and an advisory committee on the use of training
technology, which also will explore options for financing the training
and post-secondary education needed to upgrade skills and gain new
knowledge.
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including
the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.), and in
furtherance of the purposes of Chapter 41 of title 5, United States
Code, the Government Employees Training Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-507),
as amended, and Executive Order 11348, "Providing for the Further
Training of Government Employees," and in order to make effective use
of technology to improve training opportunities for Federal Government
employees, it is ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment of the President's Task Force on
Federal Training Technology. (a) The "President's Task Force on Federal
Training Technology" (Task Force) is established. The Task Force shall
provide leadership regarding the effective use of technology in
training and education; make training opportunities an integral part of
continuing employment in the Federal Government; and facilitate the
ongoing coordination of Federal activities concerning the use of
technology in training. The Task Force shall consist of the heads of
the following departments and agencies or their representatives: the
Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior,
Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and
Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Education; the Office of
Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Environmental
Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space and Administration,
Small Business Administration, and Social Security Administration; a
representative from the Small Agency Council; and representatives from
other relevant agencies and related Federal councils, as determined by
the Chair and Vice Chair of the Task Force.
(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the head of each
agency or council shall designate a senior official to serve as a
representative to the Task Force. The representative shall report
directly to the agency head or the President's Management Council
member on the agency's or council's activities under this order.
(c) The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
shall be the Chair and the representative from the Department of Labor
shall be the Vice Chair of the Task Force.
(d) The Chair and Vice Chair shall appoint an Executive
Director.
(e) The Task Force member agencies shall provide any required
staffing and funding, as appropriate.
Sec. 2. Duties of the Task Force. (a) Within 18 months of the
date of this order, the Task Force shall develop and recommend to the
President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, a policy
to make effective use of technology to improve training opportunities
for Federal Government employees. The policy should promote and
integrate the effective use of training technologies to create
affordable and convenient training opportunities to improve Federal
employee performance. The Task Force shall seek the views of experts
from industry, academia, and State and local governments as the Task
Force proceeds, as appropriate. Specifically, the Task Force shall:
(1) develop strategies to improve the efficiency and
availability of training opportunities for Federal Government
employees;
(2) form partnerships among key Federal agencies, State
and local governments, businesses, universities, and other
appropriate entities to promote the development and use of
high-quality training opportunities;
(3) analyze the use of technology in existing training
programs and policies of the Task Force member agencies to
determine what changes, modifications, and innovations may be
necessary to advance training opportunities;
(4) in consultation with the Department of Defense and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, recommend
standards for training software and associated services
purchased by Federal agencies and contractors. These standards
should be consistent with voluntary industry consensus-based
commercial standards. Agencies, where appropriate, should use
these standards in procurements to promote reusable training
component software and thereby reduce duplication in the
development of courseware;
(5) evaluate and, where appropriate, coordinate and
collaborate on, research and demonstration activities of Task
Force member agencies related to Federal training technology;
(6) identify and support cross-agency training areas that
would particularly benefit from new instructional technologies
and facilitate multiagency procurement and use of training
materials, where appropriate;
(7) in consultation with the General Services
Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy of the Office of
Management and Budget (OFPP), promote existing and new
procurement vehicles that allow agencies to provide innovative
training opportunities for Federal employees;
(8) recommend changes that may be needed to existing
procurement laws to further the objectives of this order and
forward the recommendations to the Administrator of OFPP; and
(b) develop options and recommendations for establishing a
Federal Individual Training Account for each Federal worker for
training relevant to his or her Federal employment. To the extent
permitted by law, such accounts may be established with the funds
allocated to the agency for employee training. Approval for training
would be within the discretion of the individual employee's manager.
Options and recommendations shall be reported no later than 6 months
from the date of this order.
Sec. 3. Duties of All Federal Agencies. (a) Each Federal agency
shall, to the extent permitted by law:
(1) include as part of its annual budget process a set of
goals to provide the highest quality and most efficient training
opportunities possible to its employees, and a set of
performance measures of the quality and availability of training
opportunities possible to its employees. Such measures should
be, where appropriate, based on outcomes related to performance
rather than time allocation;
(2) identify the resources necessary to achieve the
aforementioned goals and performance measures articulated in its
annual performance plan;
(3) and, where practicable, use the standards recommended
by the Task Force and published by the Office of Personnel
Management for purchasing training software and associated
services; and
(4) subject to the availability of appropriations, post
training courses, information, and other learning opportunities
on the Department of Labor's America's Learning Exchange (ALX),
or other appropriate information dissemination vehicles as
determined by the Task Force, to make information about Federal
training courses, information, and other learning opportunities
widely available to Federal employees.
(b) Each Federal agency, to the extent permitted by law, is
encouraged to consider how savings achieved through the efficient use
of training technology can be reinvested in improved training for their
employees.
Sec. 4. Duties of Specific Federal Agencies. (a) In light of
the Office of Personnel Management's responsibility for developing
Government-wide training policy, coordinating and managing training
policy programs, and providing technical assistance to Federal agencies,
the Office of Personnel Management or other appropriate agency as
determined by the Task Force shall:
(1) in consultation with the Task Force, the Department
of Defense, the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
the Department of Labor, and other appropriate agencies as
determined by OPM, publish the standards for training software
and associated services recommended by the Task Force; and
(2) ensure that qualification standards for civil service
positions, where appropriate, reflect standard industry
certification practices.
(b) The Department of Labor or other appropriate agency as
determined by the Task Force shall, subject to the availability of
appropriations:
(1) establish a specialized database for Federal training
within the framework of the Department of Labor's ALX, or other
appropriate information dissemination vehicles determined by the
Task Force, to make information about Federal training courses,
information, and other learning opportunities widely available
to Federal employees;
(2) establish and maintain a training technology website
for agencies to post training needs and to foster communication
among the agencies and between public and private sector
organizations to identify and meet common needs; and
(3) establish a staffed help desk and technology resource
center to support Federal agencies using training technology and
to facilitate the development of online training courses.
(c) The Department of Defense or other appropriate agency as
determined by the Task Force shall:
(1) in consultation with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, lead Federal participation in
business and university organizations charged with developing
consensus standards for training software and associated
services and lead the Federal review of the standards; and
(2) provide guidance to Defense agencies and advise the
civilian agencies, as appropriate, on how best to use these
standards for large-scale development and implementation of
efficient and effective distributed learning technologies.
(d) Each Executive department shall designate at least one
subject area of training that it will use to demonstrate opportunities
in technology-based training and assign an agency leader in the
designated area. Leaders in these training technology experiments
shall work closely with other agencies with similar training interests.
Each Executive department shall develop a plan for measuring and
evaluating the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and benefits to
employees and the agency for each designated subject area.
Sec. 5. Establishment of Advisory Committee on Expanding
Training Opportunities.
The Advisory Committee on Expanding Training Opportunities
(Committee) is established. The Committee shall consist of not more
that 20 members appointed by the President from outside the Federal
Government, including representatives of the research, education,
labor, and training communities, information technology sector, and
representatives from other critical sectors. The President shall
designate Co-Chairs from among the members of the Committee.
Sec. 6. Functions of the Advisory Committee. The Committee
shall provide the President, through the Assistant to the President for
Economic Policy and the Assistant to the President for Science and
Technology (Assistants to the President), with: (a) an independent
assessment of:
(1) progress made by the Federal Government in its use and
integration of technology in training programs, particularly in
the use of voluntary industry consensus-based commercial
standards for training software and associated services;
(2) how Federal Government programs, initiatives, and
policies can encourage or accelerate training technology to
provide more accessible, more timely, and more cost-effective
training opportunities for all Americans;
(3) mechanisms for the Federal Government to encourage
private sector investment in the development of high-quality
instructional software and wider deployment and utilization of
technology-mediated instruction so that all Americans may take
advantage of the opportunities provided by learning technology;
and
(4) the appropriate Federal Government role in research and
development for learning technologies and their applications in
order to develop high-quality training and education
opportunities for all Americans;
(b) an analysis of options for helping adult Americans finance
the training and post-secondary education needed to upgrade skills and
gain new knowledge. Options for financial mechanisms may include
grants, tax incentives, low-interest loans, or other vehicles to make
training and post-secondary education accessible to adults throughout
their lifetimes; and
(c) advice on other issues regarding emerging technologies in
government training and financing training and post-secondary
education for adult Americans as specified by the Assistants to the
President.
Sec. 7. Administration of the Advisory Committee. (a) To the
extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of
appropriations, the Office of Personnel Management shall provide the
financial and administrative support for the Committee.
(b) The heads of Executive agencies shall, to the extent
permitted by law, provide to the Committee such information as it may
require for the purpose of carrying out its functions.
(c) The Committee Co-Chairs may, from time to time, invite
experts to submit information to the Committee and may form
subcommittees or working groups within the Committee to review specific
issues.
(d) Members of the Committee shall serve without compensation but
shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem instead of
subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently
in the Government service (5 U.S.C. 5701-5707).
(e) Notwithstanding any other Executive order, the functions of
the President under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended,
that are applicable to the Committee, except that of reporting to the
Congress, shall be performed by the Office of Personnel Management in
accordance with guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator
of General Services.
(f) The Committee shall terminate 2 years from the date of this
order unless extended by the President prior to such date.
Sec. 8. Definitions. (a) As used in this order, the terms
"agency," "employee," "Government," and "training" have the meaning
given to those terms, respectively, by section 4101 of title 5, United
States Code.
(b) The term "technology," means any equipment or interconnected
system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic
acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control,
display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or
information, including computers, ancillary equipment, software,
firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services),
and related resources. For purposes of the preceding sentence,
equipment is used by an Executive agency if the equipment is used by
the Executive agency directly or is used by a contractor under a
contract with the Executive agency that requires the use of such
equipment. The term "technology" does not include any equipment that
is acquired by a Federal contractor incidental to a Federal contract.
Sec. 9. Judicial Review. This order does not create any
enforceable rights against the United States, its agencies, its
officers, or any person.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 12, 1999.
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