Copies of vital records, like birth and marriage certificates and military service records are often necessary in order to access a variety of government benefits and services.

But sometimes life happens and those vital records go missing. Maybe they were misplaced in a move, were stolen or got damaged in a fire.

We can help you find copies and replacements of your vital records so you can apply for whatever benefits and services you need.

Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates

These records come from the states. In order to find a copy, you’ll have to contact that state office where the life event occurred. Find the contact information for state and territory offices that can help you.

Passport

Report lost or stolen passports to the State Department right away by calling 1-877-487-2778. To replace the lost or stolen passport, you’ll have to submit forms DS-11 and DS-64 in person at a passport agency or acceptance facility. If you lose a passport, and then find it again, you won’t be able to use it to travel. You should return the lost passport and request a new one.

Military Service Records

You often need copies of military service records to apply for a variety of government programs available for veterans, like health care, retirement or education benefits. The National Archives keeps copies of all veterans’ services records, and you can apply online to receive a copy of yours or an immediate family member’s if they are deceased. If you prefer to mail or fax a request for your records, you can download form SF-180. You can also find out how to replace lost military medals and awards.

Social Security Card

If you can’t find your Social Security card, you may not actually need to replace it. As long as you know your Social Security number, you will still be able to collect Social Security, get a job and apply for many government benefits and services. However, if you do want to replace the card, you’ll need to gather documents proving your identity and citizenship to mail or take to a local Social Security office.

Green Card

If you have a U.S. Permanent Resident (Green) Card, you may need to replace it if it was lost, stolen or damaged or if your name or other biographical information has legally changed since it was issued. You can easily request a new one online. If you’re outside the United States and have lost your green card, you should contact the nearest U.S. consulate or immigrations office before you apply online for a new card.

If you need help getting copies of other vital records like tax returns or school records, you can find the information you need to replace them.

Lottery for Easter Egg Roll Opens Today

Video description

President Obama and Kid President invite you to register for the lottery to get tickets to the 2013 White House Easter Egg Roll.

Video transcript

President Obama: Kid President, it looks like you got my message

Kid President: Yes, Mr. President, I got your message. This is historic. The White House Easter Egg Roll. Kids dancing. Eggs rolling. I’m in! And you should too!

Ticket Lottery opens February 21, at 10 a.m. and closes on Monday, Feb. 25th at 10 a.m. Information available at rec.gov.

The big event is April 1.

Obama: Thanks for your help.

Kid President: Yes sir, anything to help. It’s the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. Be there!

If you receive your federal benefits by paper check, you’ll need to switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013.

The federal benefits affected are:

• Social Security
• Supplemental Security Income
• Veterans Affairs
• Railroad Retirement Board
• Office of Personnel Management
• Department of Labor (Black Lung)

You have two options for receiving benefits electronically:

1. Direct Deposit: The U.S. Treasury deposits your benefits directly into your bank account. You can sign up for direct deposit in one of these ways:

• Enroll online.
• Visit your bank or credit union.
• Call (800) 333-1795 (Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm ET).
• Contact the local office of the agency providing your federal benefits.
• Enroll by mail.

2. Prepaid Debit Card: The U.S. Treasury deposits your benefits directly to a debit card. This is an option if you don’t have a bank account and do not want to open one. You can request a debit card by calling (800) 333-1795 (Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm ET).

Be ready with the information you’ll need to set up your federal benefit payments by direct deposit or debit card.

If you have questions, call the Go Direct Helpline at (800) 333-1795.

By Phil Ashlock, Ben Balter, Danny Chapman, Kara DeFrias, and Greg Gershman

Over the years, you’ve probably filled in your name, address, and date of birth hundreds of times— while renewing your passport, applying for financial aid, filing your taxes, or completing any of the dozens of forms we all must fill out on a regular basis. We’d like to ask you to do that one more time… and then never again.

Project MyUSA (formerly known as MyGov) reimagines the relationship between the government and people. Rather than organizing government services according to the agencies that deliver them, MyUSA organizes services around people and the specific tasks they need to complete at all levels of government.

To deliver on that goal, we quickly set out to absorb as much information as we could at the beginning of our fellowship. We poured over data, sifted through heaps of documents at the Library of Congress and National Archives, and even ran a couple of “design for delight” ideation sessions to get everyone’s thoughts out on the table. In the end, four key ideas emerged to become the MyUSA product line: Discovery Bar, Account, Apps, and Forms.

A real-life MyUSA use-case

Let’s say someone wants to change her name. Normally, this would require a person to update her social security information (with the Social Security Administration), apply for a new passport (at the Department of State), and apply for a new driver’s license (at a state-level Department of Motor Vehicles). With the old way of doing business, that person is expected to know which agencies to contact about which pieces of the puzzle and would be required to submit nearly identical information to each one. MyUSA simplifies the process by presenting a better, more user- centric experience based on the collection of necessary information—while also retaining existing processes and workflows on the service delivery side.

MyUSA Discovery Bar

The Discovery Bar consists of tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) for connecting the government’s numerous websites. Agencies can embed this tool into existing web pages to help citizens discover services and information relevant to their interests and needs. Similar to the way websites inform you that “customers who bought this product also bought…” the discovery tools group online resources around citizen-centric tasks and transactions that are relevant, rather than the agencies that maintain them.

MyUSA Account

The MyUSA Account acts as an individual’s single point of access to government services, and provides a basic set of services through which agencies can interact with individuals. Each person controls access to his or her own personal information and can use a personal account to receive notifications, track and manage tasks, and access a full history of forms submitted to the government in the past.

MyUSA Apps

Apps are built using the MyUSA Citizen API. Individuals grant permission to an app to access their basic profile information. Government agencies can build interactions and workflows for common transactions, while at the same time creating an ongoing relationship between the public and the government. These can be built in any programming language and hosted anywhere.

MyUSA Forms

MyUSA Forms creates a simple and consistent experience for the public to transact with government. It also allows agencies to quickly and easily create online forms to collect and securely store information from the public. Agencies can access submitted forms via an API to integrate form submissions with their back-end systems.

How MyUSA benefits the public and government

For people:

When interacting with the government, people think in terms of their needs—not fragmented government bureaucracy. MyUSA greatly streamlines and simplifies citizens’ interaction with government – helping people much more easily find and utilize relevant information and services across government agencies.

For agencies:

MyUSA products enable agencies to more cost-effectively integrate with existing online services or to stand up new ones without unnecessarily duplicating efforts. Agencies can leverage MyUSA services, encourage cross-agency traffic, increase search engine optimization, and save time and money.

Next steps

Moving forward, we’re looking at additional ways that government can interact with citizens via the MyUSA Account. We’re also jumpstarting development on a new group of MyUSA Apps, making interacting with government easier for veterans, small businesses, and students, among others. We’re working with agencies to increase adoption of the Discovery Bar and improve the algorithms for connecting resources across the government. And, we’re also working toward rolling out MyUSA Forms as a full-fledged service across government. While MyUSA is still a prototype, built to show what’s possible, we can’t wait for these tools to become available to everyone in the not too distant future.

More information on the MyUSA Prototype

MyUSA | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | GitHub

Phil Ashlock, Ben Balter, Danny Chapman, Kara DeFrias, and Greg Gershman are Presidential Innovation Fellows working on MyUSA at the General Services Administration.

To learn more about or apply for the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, please visit: WhiteHouse.gov/InnovationFellows

At the end of fiscal year 2011, the federal debt totaled $14.8 trillion.

The debt limit determines when the U.S. Department of Treasury can or cannot borrow money to cover the country’s debts.

Learn more about the federal debt and the debt limit in Federal Debt 101, from the Government Accountability Office.