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Performance Institute President Carl DeMaio and OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson listen to a question during Johnson's keynote address to the Government Performance Summit.

WASHINGTON - Bush Administration officials, federal agency managers, Congressional staff, and good-government advocacy groups convened today for the 2004 Government Performance Summit to assess the progress in improving management and accountability in the federal government under the President's Management Agenda (PMA).

Now in its third year of implementation, the President's Management Agenda has become one of the most successful management reform initiatives undertaken by the federal government in modern history. Nevertheless, much is left to be done to achieve the ambitious goals of the PMA to transform the operations of every federal agency to make them citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based.

With 2004 an election year, many Summit participants raised key questions regarding federal management reform: What can be done to institutionalize the progress made under the PMA? Will Congress finally engage in performance budgeting and use performance information to drive budget decisions? Regardless of the outcome of the election, what's next in federal management reform?

Presentations at the Summit helped provide answers to these key reform questions. Among the highlights:

Recognition of Agency Successes
OMB Deputy Director for Management Clay Johnson and the initiative "owners" for each of the five areas of the President's Management Agenda each delivered updates on how agencies have progressed in implementing the PMA and how they fared on the latest Management Scorecard. In addition, agency officials presented some of their best practices and most innovative management innovations.

The Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Energy received specific praise for their exemplary success in implementing the PMA. In announcing that the two agencies were being recognized by the Performance Institute with "Excellence in Management" awards, Carl DeMaio called their results thus far "exemplary."

"OPM and Energy have shown remarkable progress in implementing the performance-based management reforms laid out in the President's Management Agenda," DeMaio said. "The hard work of the men and women at both organizations deserves to be recognized and this summit, amongst an audience of federal managers, was an ideal place to do it."

Commitment to Not Politicize Management
OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson, delivering a keynote address, cautioned attendees to the Government Performance Summit to keep the year's electoral politics out of the management reforms they are implementing. Johnson even floated the idea of renaming the "President's Management Agenda" the "Agency Management Agenda" to demonstrate the need for agencies to internalize and personalize the management reforms in all five areas.

Johnson expressed his delight with the government-wide progress made thus far and reinforced the need for continued diligence - no matter the results of the November election. "The federal government is in the process of becoming results-oriented," Johnson said. "It's not going to take one or two years and it's not going to take 10 years. This is gonna happen."

Support for Performance Budgeting Legislation
The legislation introduced last week by Rep. Todd Platts to codify a performance review process modeled on the Program Assessment Rating Tool drew praise from presenters and attendees. The Performance Institute also formally announced its support for the bill, with DeMaio saying, "the PART is the first and one of the most important steps in the long-term implementation of performance-based budgeting. By making program assessment a Congressional mandate, an already productive method of budget management will be sustained."

Additionally, the Performance Institute announced its intention to circulate model legislative language for performance budgeting with its "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" - legislation that would combine a government spending limit with performance assessments. The Institute is already working with legislators in several states on passage of similar legislation and will work with Congressional sponsors of a federal spending limit to include performance in their proposed bill.

Support for a Congressional Office of Program Performance
Recognizing the need to build congressional capacity for improved oversight and review of federal program performance, the Performance Institute announced its intention to propose a Congressional Office of Program Performance (using joint resources of the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting Office.) The COPP would assume the responsibility for translating the reams of performance and budgeting data produced by federal departments, agencies and the White House into relevant, usable information.

In structuring its proposal for the COPP, the Institute is using the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability in the State of Florida as an example. Dubbed as the "monitoring arm" of the Florida State Legislature, OPPAGA's evaluation-based recommendations have a direct impact on the budget decisions made by the Legislature. Florida is but one of more than 40 states recognized by the National Council of State Legislators as utilizing program evaluation offices for program and agency oversight.

Given the exorbitant amount of data that flood Capitol Hill every year, it is no wonder that members of Congress are reluctant to wade even knee-deep into it. Efforts must be undertaken to assist Congress in interpreting and subsequently using the extremely important data.

Combining the investigative thoroughness of the GAO with the fiduciary expertise of the CBO would create a systematic, methodical and streamlined Congressional approach to Executive oversight - a critical aspect of Congress' Constitutional responsibility largely neglected in the last few years. The COPP should be charged by Congress with conducting its own program assessments independent of the Office of Management and Budget, whose Program Assessment Rating Tool has paved the way for this style of evaluation.

Proposed Competitive Sourcing Language
Competitive sourcing-by far the most controversial of the management reforms in the PMA-has attracted the attention state legislators in Florida, California, Virginia and New York. PI is crafting model legislation for those states that would formalize the competitive sourcing process in a manner that emphasizes the intense evaluation of both cost and performance, and requires a transparent reporting process. The language would also demand from contractors a strict accountability for results. Once this legislation is finished, the Institute intends to promote similar legislation at the federal level.

Engaging Congressional Committees and Stakeholders in Performance Dialogues
Although the PMA has stimulated an unprecedented level of discussion about performance-based management reform within the Executive Branch, the progress being made has been inhibited by the current lack of engagement by Congress on the management reforms laid out in the PMA. As a result, The Performance Institute will host a series of Executive/Legislative dialogues throughout the year designed to bring the performance management discussion to Congress. The first two forums will be held next week, on March 10, and will be focused on how performance-based budgeting and the Program Assessment Rating Tool has been used and can be used in federal education programs, and federal wildland fire programs. The Institute will host additional forums throughout the year focused on other federal programs and agencies.

Oversight Training for Congressional Staff
The very nature of checks-and-balances democracy necessitates a commitment by Congress to exercise vigilant oversight of the Executive Branch. The President's FY05 budget proposed a record $3.5 trillion in discretionary spending, a proposal that translates to a tremendous oversight responsibility.

Oversight training for Congressional staff disappeared several years ago, but today the Performance Institute announced its intention to host free day-long training sessions on Capitol Hill beginning in May.

The training will cover both day-to-day oversight and oversight during the appropriations process, with a focus on how performance measurement and management can be used to monitor federal programs.

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