Office of the Chief Information Officer

United States Department of Agriculture

Policy and Directives (PD)

Ensuring USDA Policies and Directives Remain Current

 

A graphic image of one light orange colored pentagon with the text “USA Systems and Information “ inside a larger, darker orange colored pentagon with the text “ Information Technology (IT) Policy Compliance”. The double pentagon is surrounded by five yellow colored labels. Describing the text of each label starting at the top and going clock-wise around the center: IT Policy Development & Departmental Directives Management; Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); Privacy; eGovernment & Digital Government; and, IT Strategic Planning & Accountability.

Policy and Directives (PD) provides a portfolio of services that help USDA maintain current policies, ensure transparency, and protect privacy.

What We Do

PD improves USDA’s posture by fostering the development and maintenance of policies and strategic plans that are current and relevant in an ever changing environment, ensuring transparency through FOIA and e-Government, and maintaining the privacy of personally identifiable information with:

Policy and Information Technology (IT) Strategic Planning—PD develops and manages the departmental Directives System, serving as the central control point to ensure: compliance with regulatory agencies’ policies; reduction of overlapping and duplicating efforts; and promotion of compatibility to eliminate gaps and conflicting policies between USDA agencies.  This office maintains automated systems that provide nationwide access to all departmental directives and provides training, consultation, and assistance to agencies to develop and obtain required clearances, and to publish department directives. In addition, the PD is responsible for OCIO strategic planning and accountability. Leads, facilitates and is accountable for strategic and tactical planning activities.  The office is also responsible for strategy integration, coordination, and deployment activities in support of the OCIO strategic plan.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)—The CIO oversees the FOIA responsibilities for the Department of Agriculture, particularly handling all FOIAs for the Office of the Secretary, including those for Mission Area Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, and FOIAs that cross multiple component agencies. The FOIA function is an important function for the Department of Agriculture and is guided by statute.  The PD Departmental FOIA officer leads the FOIA service center and is responsible for ensuring the Department complies with the legal requirements for FOIA, as well as the policy requirements, such as preparing the annual FOIA report, and the annual FOIA Officer’s report to the Department of Justice.  The FOIA service center develops the FOIA policy for USDA and conducts monthly FOIA officer meetings, develops training and attends the DOJ Chief FOIA officer’s meeting with the Associate Attorney General.

Privacy—USDA’s Departmental Privacy Office within PD brings a heightened understanding of the importance of protecting the Personal Identifiable Information (PII) that USDA collects and use as part of its mission as is mandated by Federal law. The PD Privacy Office reviews and comments on Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA), Privacy Impact Statements (PIA) and System of Records Notices (SORN), and computer matching agreements.  The PD Privacy Office also establishes Departmental privacy policy, responds to PII breach incidents, performs quarterly and annual FISMA Privacy reporting on behalf of the Department, and provides subject matter expertise advice and guidance to USDA agencies and offices. It established re-occurring Privacy Council meetings, briefings, and outreach sessions to increase Privacy awareness through internal and external Privacy experts.

eGovernment—The PD eGovernment Office serves as USDA’s focal point for eGovernment Presidential Initiatives and Lines of Business, as well as the USDA liaison to the Office of Management and Budget regarding e-Government. The office provides oversight and guidance to the development and implementation of USDA-wide policies, standards, and procedures for e-Government implementations. The office manages USDA’s eGovernment relationships with other Federal agencies. It identifies and promotes common enterprise solutions to enable improvements in USDA’s business, information, and technology infrastructures to reduce overall funding requirements.  It also provides leadership in addressing and resolving IT department-wide issues and obstacles to achieving eGovernment objectives.

Provides leadership to develop and implement a USDA strategy for transforming USDA delivery of information, programs, and services using Open Government tenets of transparency, participation and collaboration.  The office identifies opportunities to transform USDA service delivery from solely “siloed” and fragmented processes to open and widely available USDA service delivery channels that are citizen/customer-centric, data-driven, and align with USDA’s overall business goals and objectives.

The PD eGovernment office develops and manages USDA’s Digital Strategy governance process in conjunction with an established working relationship with the Office of Communication that reflects a cooperative and strategic approach to using information technology to improve the delivery of USDA information, products, and services.  PD consults with appropriate agency staff to keep them informed and ensure their views are considered.

Recent Accomplishment

In 2012, OCIO placed a new Lean Six Sigma (LSS) streamlined Departmental Directives Approval Process into effect, cutting the typical clearance process down from 180 to a projected 32 business days.

Contact Information

Contact us at OCIO-P&D@ocio.usda.gov, if you have any questions.