[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1999)]
[Pages 42-46]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13111--Using Technology To Improve Training 
Opportunities for Federal Government Employees

January 12, 1999

    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

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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;

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    (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.

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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.

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    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.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 9:10 a.m., January 14, 
1999]

Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on 
January 15.