Field Digital Agenda Draft 0.1
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Priority 03

Build shared public digital infrastructure

Invest in reusable components, standards, data infrastructure, and institutions that solve recurring problems across government.

This priority advances
Purpose-fit digital infrastructure

The case

Common problems need more than separate solutions.

Governments repeatedly need to verify information, communicate with residents, apply policy rules, exchange data, and understand what they buy. Solving each need separately can leave agencies paying for incompatible systems and residents supplying the same information again. Shared components and standards can give capable public teams a better starting point.

Shared infrastructure is not one giant platform, and publishing code is not enough. It needs a clear purpose, workable interfaces, public-interest governance, secure operations, and a steward responsible for maintenance. Governments also need the resources to adopt and adapt it without surrendering control over policy, data, or service quality.

What the agenda asks

Build for reuse. Fund the ability to keep using it.

  1. 01

    Choose shared needs with actual adopters

    Start with a recurring problem that several governments are ready to solve. Test existing components and standards before commissioning something new, define what must be common and what can vary locally, and name the first adopting teams.

  2. 02

    Make interoperability and stewardship part of the product

    Use open standards, documented interfaces, and reusable code where appropriate. Establish who maintains the component, resolves competing needs, manages security and changes, and protects purpose-limited data use. Preserve governments’ ability to change providers.

  3. 03

    Fund adoption and maintenance, not just creation

    Pay for integration, migration, training, accessibility, and ongoing operations as well as initial development. Judge progress by successful reuse, service reliability, time and cost saved, and whether another government can adopt without rebuilding the core.

Across the field

Work already in motion

This is a curated view of active work that advances the priority, not a claim that every organization shown has endorsed the full Agenda.

01
Nava Labs

Piloting and evaluation

Open-source AI tools built around caseworker workflows

Nava Labs has released its Caseworker Empowerment Toolkit after testing benefit-navigation tools with government and community partners. Its tools support policy lookup, referrals, document processing, and form filling, with caseworkers reviewing information before acting. Public code and documentation give other teams a starting point for adaptation.

Toolkit released in April 2026, with public demos, code, and pilot results

Right-sized procedurePurpose-fit digital infrastructure

Learn more

Nava: Toolkit release and pilot background Caseworker Empowerment Toolkit
02
Responsive Gov Code for America

Research and policy development

A shared public foundation for timely income verification

The Institute for Responsive Government and Code for America have proposed modernizing employer wage reporting to provide more timely income and hours data for benefits administration. Their proposal treats verification as reusable public infrastructure, with common reporting approaches that could reduce repeated paperwork and dependence on expensive data purchases.

A May 2026 proposal for more timely public wage data and lower administrative burden

Purpose-fit digital infrastructureRight-sized procedure

Learn more

Responsive Government and Code for America: Modern Income Verification
03
Open Contracting

Operating and scaling

A common data standard for understanding public contracts

Open Contracting Partnership stewards the Open Contracting Data Standard, a non-proprietary model for publishing information from planning through contract implementation. Documentation, tools, and a support team help governments make contracting data comparable and reusable for monitoring, analysis, and public scrutiny.

Implemented by more than 50 governments; a shared standard, not a procurement platform

Purpose-fit digital infrastructureIncentives for outcomes

Learn more

Open Contracting Partnership: Data standard and implementation support
04
PolicyEngine

Operating

Reusable code for tax and benefit rules

PolicyEngine maintains open-source code for U.S. tax and benefit rules and household-level calculations. Making the rules inspectable and reusable creates a foundation for analysis and tools without requiring every team to encode the same policy from scratch.

A maintained public rules engine for reuse in analysis and household-level tools

Purpose-fit digital infrastructure

Learn more

PolicyEngine: U.S. rules engine and documentation
05
Beeck Center NIST CDT

Research and policy development

Adapting shared identity guidance to real benefit journeys

Beeck’s Digital Benefits Network, NIST, and the Center for Democracy & Technology are developing BalanceID resources to help benefits agencies weigh identity risks alongside privacy, usability, and equitable access. A draft risk-management tool and user guide translate shared digital identity guidance into decisions about SNAP and Medicaid application journeys.

Draft Digital Identity Risk Management tool released in February 2026; voluntary resources remain in development

Purpose-fit digital infrastructureRight-sized procedure

Learn more

BalanceID: Project and work to date

What could happen next

Open opportunities

These are possible next moves, not promises. Each one names what it could unlock and what is still needed to move it forward.

Scoping

Build an open-source child welfare system states can reuse

Explore building a working Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) with a state partner, using AI-assisted development and redesigning the practices and policies behind the software. Publish the code, architecture, and implementation playbook, then support a second state’s adoption so every state can build on the same foundation.

What would help

Bring together child welfare agencies, experienced delivery teams, federal partners, and funders to scope a first deployment, second-state adoption, and long-term stewardship. Explore this opportunity

Exploring

Startup accelerator for public-sector infrastructure

Explore an accelerator for teams building foundational products and services that public agencies repeatedly need, pairing patient support with government design partners and help navigating the public market.

What would help

Identify an operator, funders, and government partners who could shape a first cohort. Explore this opportunity

Exploring

Make privacy rules executable

Explore a privacy-as-code demonstration in a real government data-sharing workflow. Translate approved rules on authority, purpose, access, data minimization, and retention into testable controls, then publish a reusable reference implementation and evidence of how it works.

What would help

Find an agency data-sharing use case and bring together legal, privacy, program, engineering, and oversight expertise to design and test a first implementation. Explore this opportunity

Help move this priority

See a gap or a way forward?

The Workbench will provide a way to suggest work, correct a description, or help shape an opportunity. Recoding America will keep the public view selective and coherent.

Help shape the Agenda