Congressional and executive branch decision makers are unable to use the Government Performance and Results Act to improve federal management because agencies' Results Act plans are useless, House Republicans said Tuesday.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and 16 House committee chairmen wrote to acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew, saying the federal government is at a Results Act crossroads.
"We face a serious dilemma," the House leaders wrote. "On the one hand, Results Act plans are not yet useful to decision makers for the most part. On the other hand, failure to use the plans may be interpreted as a sign of lack of interest by congressional decision makers. This could discourage those who have worked hard on the plans while encouraging some cynics who expect, perhaps even want, the act to fail. Therefore, we must first be clear that failure to use the plans now is not a sign of disinterest but merely a consequence of their early stage of development. Simply put, the plans are not being used because they are not yet useful."
The leaders said OMB needs to take on a stronger leadership role in helping agencies produce useful Results Act strategic and performance plans.
Under the Results Act, agencies are eventually supposed to justify their budget requests by showing Congress and the public what results the agencies will produce with the taxpayers' dollars. Last September, agencies wrote their first five-year strategic plans, which laid out overarching goals for agency programs. In February, along with their fiscal 1999 budget requests, agencies submitted to Congress their first annual performance plans, which were supposed to tie budgets to specific goals. In March 2000, agencies are scheduled to report on whether fiscal 1999 goals were met.
But House leaders flunked most agencies' strategic plans and performance plans, saying goals were vague and hard to measure, duplicative programs were not identified and budget requests were not tied to goals. In recent weeks, the General Accounting Office has issued several reports on performance plans that reach the same general conclusions as House leaders.
G. Edward DeSeve, acting deputy director for management at OMB, said he is reading every major agency's plan to "make sure they're useful."
"I've been very encouraged by the quality of the plans," DeSeve said, though he acknowledged that there is room for improvement. Agencies, he said, are now frequently referring to performance plans during the regular course of business, making it clear that managers are beginning to use them for decision making, DeSeve said.
The GOP leaders commended the Transportation Department for developing "the best strategic plan and the best performance plan of all the agencies we evaluated." The Republicans attributed DOT's success to the "active, personal involvement" of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and Deputy Secretary Mortimer Downey in Results Act planning.
While calling on OMB to step up its leadership and coordination efforts, the Republicans acknowledged that "many dedicated federal employees are deeply committed to the principles of the Results Act and are determined to see the act succeed." The House leaders conceded that Congress must continue to show an active interest in the act for agencies to take its requirements seriously.
"We must work together to find ways to improve the plans and make them more useful," the Republicans told OMB.
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