Release Date: February 2003

We invite you to visit the U.S. Government's Official Web portal

www.FirstGov.gov

On February 27, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney launched the redesigned FirstGov website. FirstGov is the U.S. Government's official Internet portal. The site focuses on gateways for citizens, businesses, and government, and features online transactions. President Bush calls FirstGov, " the Front Door to my Administration's e-government initiative to make government more accessible to all Americans." General Services Administration Administrator, Stephen A. Perry described FirstGov as, "significant progress in harnessing the power of technology to improve citizens interaction with their government."

The FirstGov site is designed to connect visitors faster and more accurately with the transactions, services, and information that matter to them. Under the Citizens Gateway, visitors to the site can find helpful links under "Change Your Address," "Government Shopping," "E-File your Taxes," "Social Security OnLine," and much more. The Business Gateway offers links to information on "Business Opportunities," "Business Laws and Regulations," "Federal Auctions and Sales," and other helpful links. The Government Gateway links to important information resources for federal, state, local, and tribal governments and employees such as grants, travel, government jobs, government sales and auctions, and the very latest concerning information technology.

In response to feedback from customers, FirstGov was designed to meet the public's desire to conduct more transactions online and to have government information organized specifically for citizens, businesses, and governments. Since its original launch in September 2000, visitors to FirstGov have found it easy to find Web-based information, services, and transactions on federal, state, and local government Web sites. More people have been finding it more efficient to go online than to waste valuable time standing in line to work with government.

With FirstGov, citizens no longer need to know the name of the government agency or department to find what they are looking for. If citizens prefer to search for information and services, the FirstGov search engine takes them there, in a flash of a second, to more information and services than are available from any other source. FirstGov connects citizens to over 180 million pages of federal, state, local, government Web pages.

FirstGov.gov has more than 1 million visitors per week. FirstGov is an interagency initiative managed by the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the U.S. General Services Administration.

# # # #

Contact:
FirstGov@FirstGov.gov
FirstGov
U.S. General Services Administration
1800 F Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20405
(202) 219-1081

Return to Feature Releases