Release Date: March 2003

FirstGov.gov Selected as Finalist in
Innovations in American Government Awards Competition

WASHINGTON, D.C. – FirstGov.gov, the U.S. Government's official Web portal has been selected as one of 15 finalists in the prestigious 2002 Innovations in American Government Awards competition. For the second year in a row, FirstGov.gov has been recognized as one of the most innovative and effective government programs.

FirstGov.gov is the "Front Door" to the Bush Administration's e-government initiative on connecting citizens with government. FirstGov.gov helps citizens find and do business with government online, on the phone, by mail, or in person. Through FirstGov.gov, citizens can download a passport application, apply for a federal student loan, file income taxes, file a patent, buy stamps and much more – all online. FirstGov.gov also connects its visitors to all of the 50 state government portals.

The site connects visitors to a wealth of information, services and transactions from over 180 million pages of online government resources from federal, state, and local governments and is focused on customer channels or gateways for citizens, business and government. FirstGov.gov has been selected by Yahoo Magazine as "One of the 50 Most incredibly Useful Web sites", by PARADE Magazine as a "Site You'll Like" and most recently by PC Magazine as "One of Today's 100 Best Classic Sites.” FirstGov.gov is experiencing over 4.4 million unique visitors and 14 million page views a month.

Now in its 16th year, the Innovations in American Government program is part of the Institute for Innovative Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Council for Excellence in Government in Washington, D.C, administers the awards program. The competition recognized government programs at the local, state, and federal levels that are innovative, original, and effective. The 15 finalists, who represent roughly 1% of the initial applications, will make final presentations before a select panel on May 7th. The panel will announce their selection of the five winners on May 8th, 2003.

GSA is a centralized federal procurement and property management agency created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. It acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies and services. GSA, comprised of 14,000 associates, provides services and solutions for the office operations of over 1 million federal workers located in more than 8,000 government-owned and leased buildings in 2,000 U.S. communities.

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Contact:
GSA Public Affairs
(202) 501-1231
U. S General Services Administration, 1800 F Street, NW, Washington DC 20405
www.gsa.gov

GSA # 10001

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