The Performance Institute

1515 N. Courthouse Rd. • Suite 600 • Arlington, VA 22201
Tel: 703-894-0481 • Fax: 703-894-0482 • www.performanceweb.org

NEWS RELEASE

ARLINGTON, Va. - With release of the President's '06 budget today, its clear the Federal government is facing a difficult fiscal environment. The financial challenges that we are experiencing will require a long term commitment from both Congress and the Administration to maintain fiscal discipline. Fortunately, the Administration has positioned us to better manage and understand the complexities of the Federal programs through its development of the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).

The President's '06 budget proposal delivers on a promise made by the Administration to subject federal programs to rigorous performance evaluations and tie agency budgets to those evaluations. “Performance budgeting is finally paying dividends to taxpayers,” notes Performance Institute President Carl DeMaio through the continued use of the PART. The '06 budget contains PART "scores" for over 600 programs this year and “Most importantly, the budget request uses performance information to terminate or make targeted reforms in poor-performing programs while expanding programs with solid results,” DeMaio says.

The Administration has done its part in evaluating program performance and using that information to propose a budget that illustrates the importance of performance. Attention will now turn to Congress and how it uses the information from the PART to decide funding levels. Last year, Congress had an opportunity to use the PART analysis to save millions of dollars from going to ineffective and duplicative programs. Of the 13 Federal programs zeroed out in the ’05 budget request based on poor PART scores, Congress only zeroed out one of the programs. Most of the other programs saw little or no reduction in funding levels. According to DeMaio, “This is very disappointing because it communicates to people that Congress does not take performance information seriously in making appropriations decisions.” Congress is going to need to make many difficult choices in the next few years, otherwise we are likely to face a fiscal crisis unlike any we’ve ever experienced. PART can help Congress make these difficult cuts easier by taking money from programs that aren’t meeting there promises to the American people.

The Performance Institute is a private think tank seeking to improve government performance through the principles of competition, accountability, performance and transparency. The Institute serves as the nation's leading authority and repository on performance-based management practices for government. Its mission is to identify, study and disseminate the leading management innovations pioneered by "best-in-class" organizations. Complete information on the PART process and the '06 budget is available at www.transparentgovernment.org.

# # #