Federal News Network reported Monday that the 24 largest federal departments and agencies that inventoried more than 7,200 websites as part of a General Services Administration analysis now plan to decommission 332 of those websites.
According to documents obtained by FNN, those government websites set for decommissioning account for less than 5 percent of the federal agencies’ total web presence.
Thomas Shedd, commissioner of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, said the “low-hanging fruit” of websites to be eliminated include standalone sites for agency blogs, forums and photo galleries.
According to the report, GSA asked agencies to remove standalone sites for “niche topics or working groups” and those for initiatives or events that have not been relevant for a number of years.
SBA, HHS Eye Drastic Cuts to Online Presence
According to the report, the Small Business Administration plans to remove more than 50 percent of its total websites.
SBA is eliminating websites for defunct pandemic aid programs and consolidating small business certification websites into MySBA Certifications, its platform for federal contracting certifications.
The Department of Health and Human Services intends to decommission more than 7 percent of its websites. One of those websites is vaccines.cdc.gov, which tracks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s investments in efforts to sustain high vaccination coverage rates and achieve national immunization goals.
Although it would maintain the main site, HHS plans to eliminate 18 webpages that are part of cancer.gov.
A spokesperson for HHS told FNN that the inventory review is part of a governmentwide effort “to streamline digital services, eliminate redundancy, and improve the user experience across federal websites.”
