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Federal
Employment Data Exchange System (FEDES)
  Website
For more than a decade a
handful of states, including Florida, Maryland, Texas and Washington
received annual data extracts from selected Federal agencies for
state-specific uses. Individual negotiations between a state and the
Federal agencies enabled these extracts to be delivered. No one attempted
to reach agreement among the states on the timing of the request, the
format and modality of state data delivery to each agency, the data fields
sought, the deadline for return or the agreed upon price to be paid for
the extract.
The pioneers in this exchange
began to express concern about a
go-it-alone approach, recognizing that joining of forces would
achieve efficiencies for the Federal agencies, and that joining of forces would achieve efficiencies for the
Federal agencies, and that spreading adoption of performance measures with
teeth would result in rapid growth in the number of states asking for such
data. However, there was, and still is, a degree of concern that
transition from a one-on-one state-to-agency relationship to voluntary
group membership would result in a loss of needed content or timing
flexibility.
Federal Employment Data
Exchange System (FEDES) is a pilot initiative funded by the Office of
Performance and Technology, Employment and Training Administration in the
U.S. Department of Labor to test whether state-specific needs can be
satisfied so group efficiencies can be realized.
The Division of
Workforce Development, Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and
Regulation has overall management responsibility for the FEDES. The
Department’s legal counsel negotiates a state data exchange Memorandum of
Understanding between each participating state and the Department. The
Department, in turn, has negotiated a single
Memorandum of Understanding
with each of the three providers of Federal employment information.
Three sources of
Federal employment data are covered in the FEDES:
-
Office of Personnel Management civilian employees.
-
U.S. Postal Service employees.
-
Department of Defense military personnel and civilian employees.
The Jacob France
Institute (JFI) at the University of Baltimore manages the FEDES portal,
and studies challenges that are encountered in the use of data received by
states for Perkins III and other Federal performance reporting purposes.
The basic steps involved are:
- A uniform quarterly
time schedule
for data exchange has been established.
- Each state retains
full control of how social security numbers are bundled for delivery to
the JFI portal. A state identifier and discretionary program identifier
field is included, because duplicate appearance of a social security
number within a state and between states is possible for any defined
reference period. Several secure ways to accomplish this delivery are
available.
- When the deadline
for state-to-JFI delivery passes the JFI creates a single combined file
of social security numbers for delivery to OPM, the USPS and DOD. This
is a simultaneous process, not sequential on an exceptions basis.
- OPM, the USPS and
DOD have a deadline for return of matched records to the JFI.
- The JFI creates
state-specific sub-files from this common delivery and announces a
window of opportunity for each state to carry out a secure download of
their matched records.
- When the deadline
for JFI-to-state delivery of matched records passes no data are retained
by the JFI, unless temporary retention for pilot-phase diagnostic
purposes has been authorized by a state. The FEDES is not a warehousing
activity; it is a secure, and brief, pass-through sequence designed to
achieve efficiency of data exchange.
For more information or questions regarding
the FEDES program contact:
Jane Staveley
Project Manager at
(410) 837-6552 |
