Workflow Issues

Obviously, the Congressional deadlock about extending a number of benefits programs aimed at helping folks weather the economic downturn has consequences for the people who receive those benefits. But it's also an illustration of why federal staffing and workflow are so complicated. If this were a business, and a company decided to stop offering a product or performing a service, that decision could be made relatively quickly and cleanly, and the workforce and workflow could be adjusted easily as a result. But federal agencies just don't always know what they're going to be asked to do, and expirations and reauthorizations can create workflow whipsaws, and make it hard to predict what kind of workforce an agency is going to need.