The Department of the Treasury has an Information Management Plan. (click here)
At first glance the IRS makes a vision statement and strategic mission statement, but, mostly the IRS sees it's employees as professionals capable of managing their own emails and files. There is no violation by Lois Lerner of government policies in regard to her emails.
I looked through other agencies, including the State Department and the US Coast Guard. They directly address the issue of emails. The State Department more or less has the tone of the IRS, but, when examining the email rules of the Coast Guard there is always personal discretion with specific guidance on keeping paper files.
From the IRS:
IT Strategy Mission
“to enable the mission of Treasury and to leverage information technology to
steward services for citizens, government, and industry;”
Treasury IRM Vision
“information technology that is secure; accessible; adds value across the
enterprise; and exceeds customer expectations.”
5.8 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
This section of the Treasury Information Resource Management Plan deals directly with the IRS. It makes absolutely no statements about the handling of emails. I've never known the IRS to communicate with clients through email, it has always been through the US Postal Service. The issue of emails is not really considered paramount to a well run department.
The State Department's Foreign Service calls upon specific legislation to determine the place and handling of emails.
5 FAM 751.3 AUTHORITIES
(CT:IM-122; 11-14-2011)
a. Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552(a)).
b. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966, as amended; privacy
exemptions (5 U.S.C. 552(b)6 and (b)7(c)).
c. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
d. E-Government Act of 2002, Section 208 (44 U.S.C. 3602).
e. Safeguarding Against and Responding to the Breach of Personally
Identifiable Information, M-07-16 (May 22, 2007).
f. 36 CFR Parts 1220, 1222, 1228, and1234 Electronic Mail Systems August
28, 1995.
g. Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information
h. The authorities found in 1 FAM 271.5 and 5 FAM 113.
i. The Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. 31).
The State Department Foreign Service actually discourages the use of the servers for email. The staff is welcome to hold files on the computer, but, emphasizes the limit of size any attachment for an email.
I found this paragraph fairly interesting.
b. When a user’s mailbox reaches its limit, IRM works with the user to apply
best practices/email tips to reduce the mailbox size, and/or create
personal folders and help move mailbox items to the .pst file. To ensure
this is done in a timely manner, IRM reserves the right to create .pst files
and move items to them on behalf of the user. This is necessary in cases
when the user is out of the office on leave/travel or delays taking action
to reduce the .pst file size. Should this become necessary, IRM records
the location of the personal folder and ensures the user is notified of the
change.
The American consumer is quite familiar with an unlimited e-mail when accommodated by G-mail or Hotmail or Yahoo. But, the government IT is not an unending storage unit. Employees are encouraged to maintain a limit on the capacity of a person's email and will even be assisted by the information system personnel should they be out of the country or on leave.
The IRS didn't have an unlimited e-mail capacity. Besides the crashing of an obviously outdated IT system, the e-mails Mr. Issa would be looking for was probably erased ages ago and systematically removed for confidentiality reasons of both the government and the citizen.
Mr. Issa should be aware of the limit of e-mails by the federal IT capacity. He, after all knows by his own experience within his office and staff using an email account as a storage facility is not at all possible.
Mr. Issa and Mr. Boehner are conducting a witch hunt for the purpose of politics. Again they are in violation of ethics as the government is suppose to conduct the business of the country and not that of the RNC.
