President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday intended to streamline government services.
The order includes 36 reforms across 17 agencies and is designed to make it easier to file taxes, change personal information, manage government benefits, and more.
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"The bottom line is we're going to make the government work more effectively for the American citizens so it's not as confusing," Biden said at the signing ceremony at the White House. "I believe this will go a long way to restore faith in government."
One of the key facets of the executive order is to revamp and introduce more online tools across the board for citizens to manage their services.
The website USA.gov will get a new user interface and be turned into a “digital Federal front door” that gives citizens a hub of their different services, according to the order, which also instructs the health and human services secretary to continue designing new online tools for retirees so that they can claim benefits online and get a more "personalized" experience when managing Medicare. The government will also move toward expanding online tools for filing taxes and let filers schedule a customer support call.
The order also offers changes geared toward the 30 million people who move each year and roughly 2 million people who change their name. People who change their residency will be able to do so one time with the federal government and decide which agencies get access to that information, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. Those who want to change their name will be able to do so online, dispensing with the need to appear in person at the Social Security Administration office, provide a wet signature, and submit original documents.
The executive order also seeks to make travel less of a hassle. It calls for the use of more advanced technology to reduce security lines at airports, including "security machines and computers with advanced screening features that streamline these processes," according to the fact sheet, and will allow people to renew their passports online. The order also calls for StudentAid.gov to have a repayment portal capability for direct loan borrowers so individuals can manage their loans without having to navigate additional websites.
Some of the other changes include streamlining the paperwork process for filing a disaster relief claim and for enrolling in government benefits in general.
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The executive order, "Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government," also calls on agencies to put people at the center of their work more broadly.
"Our Government must recommit to being 'of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,'" the order says. "Government must be held accountable for designing and delivering services with a focus on the actual experience of the people whom it is meant to serve."