This article ran in the August/September 2011 print issue of PA TIMES. Contact Editor Christine Jewett McCrehin (cjewett@aspanet.org) for more information on the print issue. See the Related Articles box for links to more articles from the Insights on Performance column.

John M. Kamensky

The Obama Administration started in 2009 with a fairly direct “lead, learn, and leverage” initiative on improving government performance by focusing on a set of priority goals in each agency. But times have changed and so has its government performance agenda! The new emphasis is on cutting costs without cutting performance.

This article ran in the March/April 2011 print issue of PA TIMES. Email Editor Christine McCrehin at cjewett@aspaent.org for information on how to subscribe to the paper.

John M. Kamensky

My October 2010 column chronicled how Congress was updating the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act because the law had not resulted in “significant gains in the use of performance information for decision making,” according to the Government Accountability Office. Well, Congress passed a set of fairly significant amendments requiring more than 150 changes in practice and President Obama signed the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 in early January.

The House passed a bill in June to revamp the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act. In late September, the Senate took steps to update it as well. Since these bills support the Administration’s efforts, there is a good likelihood that legislation will pass.

“The Administration is committed to revolutionizing how the federal government works on behalf of the American people,” states President Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget. But this comes as a surprise to many inside-the-Beltway grumblers who are disappointed that Obama has not announced some “big bang” government reform initiative so far. There’s been no splash like Bill Clinton’s National Performance Review or George W. Bush’s President’s Management Agenda.