Comment by post_from_work

>>>America's federalism would make this idea a mess here: Each state has their own system for everything and 50%+ of the lower-level governments/agencies (county or municipal level) don't have any digital footprint at all, even a website.

Additional example: I need to pay property taxes on my mother's house in New Jersey. I'm physically on the other side of the planet. While the town has a website, it's pretty much just a phone directory. I have to call them every 3 months, usually when it's 2-3am in my timezone, ask them what the property taxes are assuming I pay them by {$date}, and then mail them checks. I can't even do something as simple as enter the property lot number in a search field on their site, have it look up the outstanding taxes, and then just pay with a VISA card.

The Federal government SHOULD be able to force certain things in the name of "regulating interstate commerce". I would think that data standards and APIs would have efficiencies at scale that would reduce friction in inter-state transactions.