The management grades and how they were determined

Few Cabinet secretaries throw themselves into the day-to-day management of their departments, preferring to delegate such responsibilities. But the secretaries do set a tone, and their attention-or inattention-to career staff can greatly affect the department's morale, performance, and reputation.

This grade reflects some subjective judgments. If a Cabinet secretary inherited a smooth-running department and hasn't messed things up, he or she might get a B. If a Cabinet secretary inherited a dysfunctional bureaucracy and has made impressive strides, he or she might get an A, even if the department's overall performance isn't at an A level.

Questions we considered included the following:

• What was the general reputation of the department when the secretary arrived? Has that reputation changed for the better or the worse?
• What kind of performance grade did the department get in Bush's budget, and is there a sense that improvements have been made since then?
• Are career bureaucrats generally happy with the secretary's leadership, or is there a lot of dissension?
• Do the people who do business with the department feel that they have an opportunity to be heard?
• Are policy decisions conveyed clearly to affected parties?
• Do the sub-Cabinet departments cooperate with each other?
• Are the ultimate consumers of the department's programs being well served?

The Grades

A
Mitch Daniels, Office of Management and Budget
Donald Evans, Commerce
Colin Powell, State
Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services

B
Norman Mineta, Transportation
Anthony Principi, Veterans Affairs
George Tenet, CIA
Ann Veneman, Agriculture

C
Spencer Abraham, Energy
John Ashcroft, Justice
Elaine Chao, Labor
Mel Martinez, HUD
Gale Norton, Interior
Donald Rumsfeld, Defense

D
Paul O'Neill, Treasury
Roderick Paige, Education
Christie Whitman, EPA

No grade given
Tom Ridge, Homeland Security