The United States federal government, through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), remains committed to investing resources to improve the health and well-being of all Americans.  The Department does not anticipate increased spending across the board, but expects stable funding for programs and for the management and administration of these programs.  HHS and its partners will continue to enhance the nation’s investment through wise program and resource utilization decisions that get the most for the funds available. 

To support the strategies described in the HHS Strategic Plan, and to ensure that HHS and its partners have the capacity to implement them effectively, the Department will pursue resources that are compatible with the demands of the plan’s program strategies. The discussion that follows describes the approaches HHS will employ to coordinate resources for two resource categories that are critical to program success at this time: human and information resources.  In addition, we highlight many of the resources that the Department and its partners will employ to achieve the strategic goals in the HHS Strategic Plan.

The highly coordinated HHS budget formulation processes ensure that the resources for both programmatic and management strategies are identified to support the HHS Strategic Plan.  The HHS Secretary’s Budget Council, which consists of Department leaders representing broad policy and functional interests, will continue to conduct hearings on the budget requests of all HHS components and make recommendations regarding cross-cutting Departmental budget initiatives that improve HHS programs.  In recent years, for example, HHS budget coordination resulted in budgets that supported critical resource challenges associated with bioterrorism.

Budgetary Resources

The table below displays the Department’s FY 2004 discretionary budget request amounts, organized by Strategic Goal.  Funding for individual goals may not add precisely to the Department total due to rounding errors.

Human Resources

Over the last several years, workforce planning has emerged as a significant resource challenge for HHS.  The Department is responding with coordinated planning efforts that are linked to the HHS budget process.  Multiple factors contribute to the workforce planning challenge faced by HHS and other federal agencies.  The Department’s agencies are confronted with an aging workforce that will be subject to high levels of retirement beginning within the next few years.  Unprecedented advances in information technology and the legitimate expectations of the Congress that federal agencies better manage technology have significantly altered the skill requirements of positions throughout federal agencies and programs.  Advances in medical science and the reform of human service programs have had a similar effect on federal, state, and community organizations and their employees who must adapt rapidly and continuously to changing demands.

To ensure coordinated planning in the budget context, HHS requires program components to submit a workforce plan with each fiscal year budget.  This workforce plan must address the strategies and costs of addressing these critical issues.  HHS workforce plans are developed following Departmental guidance presented in Building Successful Organizations–Workforce Planning in HHS, November 1999.  This guidance presents a flexible Departmental model of planning that addresses the analysis of several common fundamental elements of workforce planning: workforce analysis, competency assessment, gap and solution analysis, workforce transition analysis, and evaluation.

Information Technology

The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is clearly defined:

To enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering strong, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health and social sciences.

Information technology (IT) is a powerful conduit for accomplishing the HHS mission, and it presents significant opportunities to drive progress for public health and human services. 

The HHS Enterprise IT Strategic Plan for FY 2003 – FY 2008 details the IT strategies and enterprise initiatives that will best support and achieve the HHS mission and goals, advance the most effective and efficient use of IT resources across HHS, and align the enterprise-wide IT strategic direction with Departmental, government-wide, and national priorities, while maintaining a focus on citizens, customers, and stakeholders.  The HHS Enterprise IT Strategic Plan establishes a comprehensive and robust guide for the direction of IT across HHS.

Achievement of the IT vision and fulfillment of the IT mission occur by accomplishing the IT goals and objectives.  Implementation of these strategies is achieved through enterprise IT and management initiatives.  Successful implementation of the Enterprise Initiatives furthers the fulfillment of the IT objective with which it is aligned, and continues cascading upwards to the achievement of the IT goals and vision.  The table below aligns the Enterprise Initiatives with the IT goals and objectives and identifies a timetable for fulfillment of the initiatives and as a result the IT strategies.

Action plans for each enterprise initiative identified above provide descriptions of the initiatives, high-level implementation activities, milestones, performance indicators, and a risk management plan.  Action plans have been developed for each of the enterprise initiatives and are part of the HHS Enterprise IT Strategic Plan.  Most importantly, each goal, objective, and enterprise initiative is based on a results-oriented management approach.  The HHS CIO will track the progress of each goal, objective, and enterprise initiative through a series of performance indicators.

The Enterprise IT Strategic Plan reflects the HHS IT community’s commitment to support the President’s and the Secretary’s visions by providing a roadmap to help HHS improve the way business is conducted and customer and stakeholders are served.  Consolidation and modernization together will improve both the breadth and depth of HHS services while increasing efficiency.  To the extent that increased efficiency reduces our overall operating costs, savings can be redirected from overhead funded areas to programs that directly benefit the people served.  In addition, increased attention to the many facets of IT security will increase public confidence in the integrity of HHS programs and services.

Ultimately, HHS’ commitment to meeting the challenges of IT security, the President’s Management Agenda, E-government strategies, homeland security priorities, and the Secretary’s One HHS initiative is at the core of the HHS Enterprise IT Strategic Plan for FY 2003 – FY 2008.

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