Field Digital Agenda Draft 0.1
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Priority 03

Build and sustain shared public digital infrastructure

Invest in reusable components, standards, data infrastructure, and the adoption and maintenance that make them useful 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.

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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, a steward responsible for maintenance, and a financing model beyond the first build. Governments also need the resources and procurement paths to adopt and adapt it without surrendering control over policy, data, or service quality.

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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.

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  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. For shared verification tools, design for accurate decisions, legitimate access, and correction when information is wrong.

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  3. 03

    Fund adoption and maintenance, not just creation

    Pay for integration, migration, training, accessibility, and ongoing operations as well as initial development. Document the staff roles, costs, contracts, and local changes adoption requires. Judge progress by service reliability and whether a second government can adopt without rebuilding the core.

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Across the field

Selected examples

These illustrate the priority, not a census. They include proposals, pilots, current resources, and completed work with lessons to reuse. Sources were reviewed on the dates shown; status may have changed. Inclusion implies neither endorsement of the Agenda nor a funding recommendation. Use “Suggest an edit” on a card to correct its status or description.

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.

Why selected: Offers reusable code to test against real caseworker workflows.

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

Pilot results are linked in the sources. Wider adoption and durable service improvements need separate assessment.

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Right-sized procedurePurpose-fit digital infrastructure

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Nava: Toolkit release and pilot background Caseworker Empowerment Toolkit

Sources reviewed

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.

Why selected: Proposes shared data infrastructure to reduce repeated verification burden.

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

The proposal describes a possible improvement; reduced reporting burden is an intended benefit.

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Purpose-fit digital infrastructureRight-sized procedure

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Responsive Government and Code for America: Modern Income Verification

Sources reviewed

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.

Why selected: Shows a maintained shared standard that governments can adopt without a single platform.

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

The count indicates adoption. Effects on competition, purchasing, or delivery require separate evidence.

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Purpose-fit digital infrastructureIncentives for outcomes

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Open Contracting Partnership: Data standard and implementation support

Sources reviewed

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.

Why selected: Makes policy rules inspectable and reusable in analysis and tools.

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

An available rules engine supports reuse; this signal does not measure outcomes in adopting services.

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Purpose-fit digital infrastructure

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PolicyEngine: U.S. rules engine and documentation

Sources reviewed

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.

Why selected: Applies shared identity guidance to benefits journeys and their access risks.

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

The draft resource supports implementation planning; improved verification and legitimate access require evaluation.

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Purpose-fit digital infrastructureRight-sized procedure

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BalanceID: Project and work to date

Sources reviewed

What could happen next

Possible next moves

These illustrate ways to advance the priority, including development, adoption, and sustained operation. They invite discussion and support; they are not an announced grant program.

Development and testing

Readiness: Scoping

Prove a reusable public system through child welfare

Explore a working open-source Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) with a state partner as a test of reusable public systems. Pair software with changes to agency practice and policy, then publish the code, decisions, costs, and adoption playbook for a second state to test what truly transfers.

What would help

Bring together child welfare agencies, families and caseworkers, delivery teams, federal partners, and funders to test demand, scope a first deployment, and plan long-term stewardship and a second adoption. Explore this opportunity

Development and testing

Readiness: Exploring

Startup accelerator for public-sector infrastructure

Explore an accelerator for teams building foundational products and services public agencies repeatedly need. Pair patient support with government design partners and help teams navigate procurement, adoption, and long-term stewardship.

What would help

Find government design partners, an operator, and funders to choose a first cohort around a defined public need and test whether the model helps products reach adoption. Explore this opportunity

Development and testing

Readiness: Exploring

Make privacy rules executable

Explore a bounded privacy-as-code demonstration in one real government data-sharing workflow. Translate human-approved rules on authority, purpose, access, minimization, and retention into testable controls, then publish safe tests and evidence of how they work. Encoding a rule also exposes legal and policy interpretations that people must resolve.

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?

Tell us about a need this priority overlooks, even if you do not have a project to propose. Or add work already underway, with a public source. Editors review suggestions before publication.

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