Innovation award finalists announced

The Ford Foundation has selected seven "creative and effective" federal programs as finalists for the 1998 Innovations in American Government Awards and granted each of them $20,000 for their "unique approaches to public policy."

The federal programs are among a group of 25 finalists, including state and local government initiatives, for the awards. The 10 winners of this year's competition will be announced Oct. 22. Each will receive $100,000.

The Innovations in American Government Awards are designed to highlight superior performance by agencies in handling tough problems.

"Twelve years ago we chose to begin recognizing government innovation because few others were saying positive things about government," Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford said. "All of these programs provide continuing examples of government as a creative force, applying effective solutions to real problems."

The federal finalists in this year's awards are:

• A program run by the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to combat the problem of worker exposure to dangerous asphalt fumes during highway paving operations. Under the program, industry leaders voluntarily agreed to incorporate emission controls on all new highway paving vehicles. This effort reduced exposures for approximately 300,000 workers. For more information on the project, see NIOSH's Web site.
• The Best Manufacturing Practices program at the Office of Naval Research, which works to improve the quality of goods and services received from Navy suppliers. The program encourages Navy vendors to share and implement each other's best practices. The data is gathered through surveys, judged on the basis of merit and entered into a database accessible to all participating companies. For more information, visit the Best Manufacturing Practices Web site.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care program, which works within the community to address the underlying issues that lead to homelessness: domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse. The Continuum of Care program provides counseling and aid to help homeless people find stable homes by focusing on outreach and assessment, emergency shelter and transitional housing.
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission's Fast-Track Product Recall program, which accelerates the product recall process, saving the government and companies time and money and getting dangerous products out of the marketplace up to three times faster than previously. Under the program, a company can voluntarily report a potential product defect to CPSC and inform CPSC of its plan to recall the product within 20 days. CPSC then evaluates the adequacy of the plan and work with the company, if necessary to expedite the recall. For more information on the program see the CPSC's Web site.
• The National New Hire Reporting program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, which uses interagency collaboration to collect unpaid child support. Under the program, W-4 information that employers report on new hires is transmitted to a National Directory of New Hires. States can access this data and track down child support delinquents anywhere in the country.
• The Forest Service's Northern New Mexico Collaborative Stewardship program, which works to manage resources and improve forest health in northern New Mexico. Until recently, the Camino Real Ranger District, a Forest Service field office, was able to balance the desires of timber companies for forest products with the goal of maintaining the ecosystem of the forest. As competing interests collided, timber sales became tied up in years of costly litigation. Soon, an injunction banned all timber sales. The Collaborative Stewardship program brings these competing interests together to manage and improve forest health while providing needed resources.
• The Justice and Treasury departments' Secure Electronic Network of Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) program, which has created an automated car inspection process for implementation on all border crossing points. SENTRI works by prescreening frequent border crossers and identifying those who are considered low risk for criminal activities. As the pre-approved travelers approach an inspection station, they are directed to a SENTRI station that performs a quick electronic screening, accessing federal databases that contain all the travelers' information. This system allows border guards to focus their efforts on perceived high-risk travelers.