New federal website shows how states can make government easier to navigate

When citizens need help from their government for a variety of services, finding the right platform should not be harder than accessing the service itself. Too often, however, Americans have to navigate separate government websites, learn unfamiliar bureaucratic terminology, and repeatedly provide the same information just to complete routine tasks. The federal government’s new America.gov portal recognized this problem.

Launched on September 29, America.gov is designed to serve as a single digital entry point for federal information and services. The platform allows users to find relevant government resources and, hopefully, in the future, will integrate additional services to complete more transactions through the single portal. This one-stop portal supports the initiative that government services should be organized around the people who use them, not the bureaucracy that administers them.

Our region’s geography makes accessible government services especially important. There are so many rural communities that live far from government offices, and traveling to submit paperwork can mean taking time away from work and family. A well-designed online system can reduce the burden of travel by making public services more convenient without asking the government to open additional physical offices.

A 2025 survey by the National Association of State Technology Directors found that 29% of responding states operated a statewide citizen services portal, while another 39% were developing one. There are also examples of other states that have already taken this step, such as Texas and Utah through their platforms Texas by Texas (TxT) and MyUtah.

Many states in our region already have a platform to build off of. Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services operates an online self-service portal through which residents can apply for public assistance programs, including SNAP, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Idaho’s official state website already provides a centralized starting point where residents can search for services based on their circumstances, such as being a parent, business owner, veteran, or new resident.

Wyoming offers a statewide online-services portal designed to provide a single point of entry for interacting with multiple state agencies. Washington is transitioning to WA.gov as a single account for state services and is building a broader resident portal to provide a single point of access to government services.

A central digital services office could help agencies coordinate services rather than independently building systems that do not work well together.

America.gov offers a great model for the experience these government services should provide. States should also adapt this era of digitization to their own needs. A single digital front door does not require every government agency to use the same underlying software or surrender its statutory responsibilities.

The federal executive order establishing America.gov explicitly preserves agencies’ control over their records and legal duties, which is a great way to keep things in check. Mountain West states can follow similarly by using access where it benefits residents while simultaneously preserving the specialized functions that different services require.

Public benefits, professional licensing, tax administration, and other government services have different eligibility rules, legal obligations, and administrative processes. Combining them indiscriminately could create unnecessary issues rather than eliminating them. The goal is to create ease for rural communities in these states while still preserving the value of important face-to-face services.

One important note: a portal that handles personal information must protect privacy by establishing secure rules for data access and sharing. Online services should also be accessible to people with disabilities and designed for users with different levels of digital literacy. Because not every citizen has reliable internet access or is comfortable completing government transactions online, states should preserve telephone, mail, and in-person options. Digital government should expand access, not make essential services harder to obtain for people who cannot use an online platform.

Finally, states should measure whether this kind of investment would deliver results. Useful benchmarks could include the time required to complete an application, the number of steps residents must take to access a service, how often they are asked to submit the same information, and whether users can successfully finish common transactions. Clear performance measures of the portal would guide lawmakers toward the services residents use most.

As Mountain States Policy Center has previously recommended, a one-stop portal can make government services easier to navigate, as long as it preserves the distinct responsibilities of individual agencies. America.gov offers a great new example of how that same principle can be applied at the federal level.

America.gov is a federal initiative, but its underlying lesson applies to states, too. States in our region can build on their existing digital services to create a one-stop portal that aids residents in a way that is inclusive and useful to all, but not limiting to those unfamiliar.