[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 10 (Friday, January 15, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 2793-2797]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-1185]



[[Page 2791]]

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Part VII





The President





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Executive Order 13111--Using Technology To Improve Training 
Opportunites for Federal Government Employees
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                         Presidential Documents 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 10 / Friday, January 15, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 2793]]

                Executive Order 13111 of January 12, 1999

                
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.

[[Page 2794]]

                    (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:

                    L   (1) develop strategies to improve the 
                efficiency and availability of training opportunities 
                for Federal Government employees;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (5) evaluate and, where appropriate, coordinate 
                and collaborate on, research and demonstration 
                activities of Task Force member agencies related to 
                Federal training technology;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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:

[[Page 2795]]

                    L   (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;
                    L   (2) identify the resources necessary to achieve 
                the aforementioned goals and performance measures 
                articulated in its annual performance plan;
                    L   (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
                    L   (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:

                    L   (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
                    L   (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:
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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
                    L   (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:
                    L   (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
                    L   (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.

[[Page 2796]]

                    (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:

                    L   (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;
                    L   (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;
                    L   (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
                    L   (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).

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                    (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.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    January 12, 1999.

[FR Doc. 99-1185
Filed 1-14-98; 9:10 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P