A recent GAO report on the executive branch’s approach to new requirements in the Government Performance and Results Act recommends that “OMB improve the implementation of the act.” But a sub-theme in the report describes how agencies are actually building a long-term, solid foundation for a performance-driven government. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is requiredRead… Read more »
The Obama Administration has built on efforts from the Bush Administration to embed the use of evidence and evaluation in making funding decisions. There are now four different types of initiatives underway, or proposed, in a range of federal agencies. Within OMB, there is an active effort to catalyze agencies to develop and undertake aRead… Read more »
Policymakers are fixated on short-term budget austerity measures such as furloughs, pay freezes, and conference and travel spending. However, there is a small, but growing effort to take a longer, more strategic look at how to manage austerity by finding what works and targeting dollars there instead of to programs that cannot demonstrate effectiveness. ThisRead… Read more »
Several new studies demonstrate the difficulty of defining what constitutes the “atom” of a federal program, but a recent Washington Post article begins to uncover why it is so elusive, much like finding sub-atomic particles in physics. Defining Federal Programs Isn’t Simple There is more than one way to define what constitutes a federal “program,”Read… Read more »
by Allan Rubin, Vice President, Marketing The GSA conference scandal has crept back into the news as the IRS has encountered its own high-profile spending scrutiny. So I found it noteworthy when this item crossed my desk today. The Office of Management and Budget just issued a “Controller Alert” to all Federal agencies, acknowledging theRead… Read more »
by Chris Wiedemann, Analyst If you’ve been following the progress of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), you might have seen a recent GAO report that contained some mixed messages about the program’s progress. First, the good news: according to the report, agencies have already closed around 420 data centers, with another 968 plannedRead… Read more »
Last March the Office of Management and Budget unveiled PortfolioStat. The goal was simple, help agencies save time, money and resources by giving them a tool to asses their portfolio management process. Andrew McMahon is a Senior Policy Advisor at OMB. He oversees PortfolioStat. McMahon was a panelist at an AFCEA Bethesda event that theRead… Read more »
What ever became of the new statutory provision requiring agencies to “identify low-priority program activities?” The GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 requires agencies to annually “identify low-priority program activities based on an analysis of their contribution to the mission and goals of the agency and include an evidence-based justification for designating a program activity asRead… Read more »
Benjamin Franklin famously said that “time is money.” But does government know how to implement this maxim seriously? Now there is a new study that shows how they can do it! Last week, President Obama signed a memo directing agencies to modernize their construction permitting and review processes in order to: “advance the goal ofRead… Read more »
Public Service Recognition Week recognizes a lot of hidden talent across the government. But is that talent always available when the government needs it? Sometimes, it is. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen was superb at handling big, complex challenges that reach across agency boundaries. He led the evacuation of lower Manhattan during 9/11. He tookRead… Read more »