Seventeen Federal Programs Named Semifinalists
in Government Innovations Award Program

The 99 semifinalists for the 2001 Innovations in American Government Awards were announced today. These included 17 federal programs.

Selected from a pool of more than 1,300 applicants, the 17 federal government semifinalists are:

• U.S. Appalachian Regional Commission's Entrepreneurship Initiative;
• U.S. Department of Commerce's Census 2000 Advertising Campaign;
• U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service;
• U.S. Department of Defense's Military-Civilian Task Force for Emergency Response;
• U.S. Department of Defense's Ozone Depleting Substance Reserve;
• U.S. Department of Education's 21st Century Community Learning Center;
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Child Welfare Outcome Initiative;
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health Program;
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (National Institutes of Health) Contractor Performance System;
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Family Self-Sufficiency Program;
• U.S. Department of the Interior's Civil War Battlefield Education Program;
• U.S. Department of State's Office of Holocaust Issues;
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for Patient Safety;
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Michigan Source Reduction Initiative;
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SAFE TAPS Program;
• U.S. Federal Election Commission's State Filing Waiver Program; and
• U.S. General Services Administration's FirstGov program.

The Awards recognize initiatives at all levels of government that are both original and effective. In addition, 40 state, 19 city and town programs, 12 county, 7 school districts, 2 government corporations and 2 tribal governments were selected as semifinalists. The semifinalists are eligible for one of five Awards of $100,000.

Four criteria are used to evaluate each application: originality of the approach; effectiveness in addressing important problems; value of services to clients; and the potential for replication in other jurisdictions.

Fifteen finalists will be named from the pool of semifinalists in September. The National Selection Committee on Innovations in American Government, chaired by David R. Gergen, editor-at-large, U.S. News & World Report, will select five winning programs after a full day of presentations on October 17, 2001 in Washington, DC. Winners will be announced the following day, and each will receive a $100,000 Award. The remaining 10 finalists will each receive $20,000.

Celebrating its 15^th anniversary, Innovations in American Government is an awards program of the Institute for Government Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The program is administered in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government.

For additional information on the Government Innovations Award program, click here.

Current as of April 2001