Donna Roy, NIEM Executive Director, testified today on NIEM to the House Committee on Ways and Means, Human Resources Subcommittee. She testified on a panel with the Honorable George Sheldon, Acting Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The focus of the hearing was current and future data standardization efforts designed to increase the use of technology to improve the administration of public benefit programs. NIEM is included in legislative provisions that were enacted in the 2011 Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (P.L. 112-34) and the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-96).
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Geoff Davis of the Human Resources Subcommittee stated:
"The progress made in the last year is only the first step in a much longer process of bringing human service programs into the 21st century. The standardization activities reviewed in this hearing will promote transparency, flexibility, and accountability by ensuring data can be shared across the various information technology platforms used by federal and state agencies. Improving the use of this program data will benefit program recipients and taxpayers alike by ensuring efficient and effective stewardship of scarce taxpayer funds."
During her oral testimony, Donna Roy articulated the scope of the challenge and the opportunity for applying NIEM to this nationwide effort:
"Whether the situation involves protecting citizens, responding to disasters, promoting public health, identifying welfare assistance eligibility, or providing needed support services to children and their families, the lack of standardization in information exchange across a broad landscape of systems, agencies, and jurisdictions creates challenges in providing effective and efficient Citizen Services, often leading to fraud, waste, and abuse. The challenge is clear: how do we connect the wide array of systems operating across the whole of government while supporting an appropriate policy framework and security model flexible enough to accommodate the diverse laws, regulations and policies?"
In his written testimony, Assistant Secretary of ACF Sheldon stated:
"We are pleased to note that the Human Services Domain was recently officially recognized and officially established under NIEM. In the next few months, ACF will be posting planning documents on the NIEM website for review and comment."
Robert Doar, Commissioner of the New York City (NYC) Human Resources Administration, was on a second panel today and testified on the impact of NIEM on the NYC HHS-Connect program, a Best of NIEM 2009 Award Winner. Also on the second panel was Campbell Pryde, President & CEO of XBRL U.S., who was a NIEM NTE 2009 presenter.
Last month, in a March 20 hearing held by the Human Resources Subcommittee, Craig Burlingame, Chief Information Officer, Trial Court Information Services, Massachusetts Court System testified:
"Although I am not testifying on behalf of NIEM today, I am testifying in support of NIEM as it relates to any standards contemplated by this legislation. The NIEM model is now being used in many aspects of government around the country and not just within the Justice domain …Because we in the courts deal with matters that come before us from a range of other governmental disciplines, we would hope that any standards developed in the child support enforcement area would be developed using the NIEM framework and dictionaries."
A transcript of Donna Roy's testimony is available here.
A recorded webcast from the Human Resources Subcommittee testimonies is available on the committee website.
More information on the hearing can be found on the committee website.