Federal Management: Pathological Problems and Simple Cures

1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 187-193
Author(s):  
Allan Rosenbaum

Like all of their recent predecessors, senior officials of the Reagan administration have spoken both frequently and with enthusiasm of their intention to save large amounts of taxpayers' money while making the federal government more responsive and dramatically increasing agency productivity. All of this is to be done by shaping up the federal bureaucracy.The main activity which has emerged so far has been to implement a hiring freeze, to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy through firings and furloughs, and to advocate a barely specified form of cabinet governance. While these actions may save money in the short run, they will not improve the actual functioning of the federal bureaucracy.Indeed, ideas emerging from presidential appointees frequently tend to be irrelevant for one simple reason: most secretaries, assistant secretaries and even deputy assistant secretaries know very little about federal bureaucracy when they come to Washington and subsequently spend a remarkably small portion of their time learning about it—a fact that in itself is one of the major obstacles to improving the management of the federal government.Few secretaries, assistant secretaries and deputy assistant secretaries in any administration can resist the call of endless meetings with their counterparts from the states, other federal agencies or the big interest groups. Even more compelling for them is the siren call of travel to Paris, Peoria, and sundry places east and west to spread both enlightenment and the gospel of their administration and to revel in the attention automatically granted many visiting federal officials.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-343
Author(s):  
Keith Makoto Woodhouse

Historians often understand the 1970s and 1980s in terms of a declining New Deal order, in which an antistatist right as well as a conflicted relationship between public interest movements and administrative authorities undermined the notion of an effective federal government. Nowhere was the erosion of federal administration seemingly more apparent than in the West. An examination of the regulation of off-road racing in the California desert, focusing on everyday administration rather than on elections and lawsuits, reveals how federal agencies actually worked more collaboratively and productively with different interest groups than familiar narratives about these polarized decades would suggest. Contrary to depictions of federal agencies as administrating from afar, and of environmental organizations as overly litigious and out of touch, regulatory work in the California desert happened locally and through relationships shaped by new laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
KHURRAM EJAZ CHANDIA ◽  
MUHAMMAD BADAR IQBAL ◽  
SAIRA AZIZ ◽  
IFRA GUL ◽  
BINESH SARWAR

Fiscal policy is an essential ingredient of economic performance. The fiscal policy is considered as a short-run measure; however, this has long-lasting outcomes for any economy. The current study has examined the connection among different constituents of fiscal policy, i.e., federal government revenues and federal government expenditures; federal government revenues and different components of federal government expenditures; federal government expenditures and different components of federal government revenues and fiscal deficit and influential budgetary variables in the context of the economy of Pakistan. The study has empirically investigated the relationship among the budgetary variables for Pakistan from 1979 to 2017. For data analysis, time-series econometric techniques such as auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) approach and Granger causality test have been employed. The results of ARDL bounds test approach suggest the existence of long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables. The result of CUSUM and CUSUMSQ shows the stability of functional relationship tested in this study, which means that model is a useful instrument for policymaking. So, a rise or fall in budgetary variables causes changes in fiscal deficit in long run. The results of study endorse the proof of spent-and-tax hypothesis in the economy of Pakistan. The study suggests the need for extensive fiscal policy reforms in Pakistan.


Author(s):  
William J. Barattino ◽  
Scott Foster ◽  
James Spaulding

The Federal Government accounts for about 2% of energy usage within the United States, with electricity accounting for approximately one-fifth of this usage. The Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest energy consumer across all Federal Agencies, accounting for nearly half of total use and has implemented programs to assure sustainable energy supplies for meeting mission critical operations. As prototype systems of Small Modular Reactors mature during the remainder of this decade, there is growing interest at senior levels of government to use the secure confines of military bases for electricity generated with SMRs to service power requirements of the DOD base and possibly the surrounding communities. This paper explores the potential for using DOD as an early adopter of SMRs from perspectives of the size of the market and adaptability of the current procurement process for private ownership of SMRs on military bases. Such an approach is shown to be consistent with DOD Sustainability objectives, as well as ensuring a continuation of the projected erosion of diversity mix for prime power generation within the U.S. A review of contract types for energy services are evaluated from the perspective of including SMRs. Required modifications for SMRs to be a part of this energy mix for Federal Agencies are presented.


Author(s):  
Richard A. Jenkins

The federal government provides community psychologists with a wide variety of career options. These include hands-on investigational research, program and policy implementation, and program administration, as well as opportunities to shape policy, research, and program practice. Community psychologists have been employed by a wide variety of federal agencies, with varied roles, responsibilities, and content areas, often in the context of multidisciplinary teams. Federal jobs provide opportunities for training, professional development, and evolution over the course of a career. The chapter includes pathways to federal jobs and considerations for successful federal careers.


1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1107-1114
Author(s):  
J. Kerwin Williams

Final adjournment of the Seventy-fourth Congress, which like its immediate predecessors turned out a substantial grist of bills affecting cities, brought into focus once again the question of what is happening to our “sovereign states” and their political subdivisions. Federal contacts with cities are not, of course, an entirely new phenomenon in the United States. For a number of years prior to the depression, certain federal agencies had maintained informal contacts with municipal governments by offering them services, information, and advice, and such services are still being utilized. Until July, 1932, however, with the passage of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, congressional statutes had never touched municipal governmental functions except indirectly through grants-in-aid to the states, the federal government had never entered into important contractual relations with cities, and Congress had never sat in legislative session to deal with the problems of cities as political units.


2018 ◽  
Vol 678 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-123
Author(s):  
Kathy Stack

During the Obama administration, the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) leadership helped to initiate and cement evidence-based policymaking reforms across the federal government, particularly in social services programs. Notable accomplishments were in the design of outcome-focused programs that use and build evidence, the strengthening of agency evaluation capacity, and interagency data-linkage projects to harness administrative data. Here, I review those accomplishments and catalog the key assets and tactics that OMB used to help federal agencies increase their use of evidence and innovation. I also assess the shortcomings and limitations of the Obama-era OMB approach and draw conclusions about what could be done in the current or a future administration to further advance evidence-based policymaking in the executive branch. Specifically, I propose that Congress and the administration should work to improve agency evaluation capacity, assess and report on agencies’ progress in using and building evidence, and establish an Intergovernmental Evidence and Innovation Council.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Gary A. Wagner ◽  
Russell S. Sobel

Abstract We provide new evidence regarding the role of interest groups in influencing the size and growth of government spending. Using data on the change in individual legislators’ total voted and sponsored spending from the status quo, we explore this relationship in a manner closer to the public choice tradition. Examining the impact diat interest groups have on individual legislators’ preferences for new spending, we find that interest groups within a legislator’s district exhibit more influence on the short-run growth of the budget than do Political Action Committees.


Subject US interagency procedures for sharing signals intelligence. Significance The administration of President Barack Obama is in the final stages of issuing new rules governing the sharing of signals intelligence (SIGINT) among federal agencies involved in national security. These rules, which the intelligence community has long expected, would clarify how the federal government may share communications-based intelligence, such as wiretaps and intercepts, among diverse agencies, and -- critically -- set boundaries on the use of such intelligence by agencies that did not originally collect it. Impacts The next administration -- whether Republican or Democratic -- will probably be less responsive to privacy groups in this area. The Obama administration's focus on executive orders governing emerging technologies has set precedent but offers few lasting restrictions. Privacy issues will hinder US international trade negotiations, further derailing TTIP talks for the foreseeable future.


Significance Some hard-right members of the Republican congressional caucus argue that allowing federal spending to lapse and threatening a government shutdown could force legislators to approve steep cuts to the federal bureaucracy. As congressional factions, leaders and President Donald Trump’s administration weigh in on government spending, debates about the appropriate scope of federal agencies and programmes are likely to feature prominently. Impacts Costly entitlement programmes are unlikely to be targeted for cuts owing to their popularity. Congressional allies of USAID will block Trump’s plan to consolidate it into the State Department. Empty executive branch-appointed positions will hinder the effective functioning of the federal government. The proposed abolition of the state and local tax deduction for federal taxes will place pressure on sub-national government programmes.


Author(s):  
Лариса Чернухина ◽  
Larisa Chernukhina

The article deals with the issues of the delineation of authority between Federal legislative bodies and legislative bodies of the provinces and territories in the sphere of child protection from the domestic violence. The author analyzes the area of competence of the legislative bodies of mentioned levels, paying particular attention to their complementarity and possible conflicts between rules. In accordance with the Constitution of Canada the Federal, provincial and territorial governments have a shared responsibility for many aspects concerning the situation of children in society. However, criminalization of some unlawful acts, including the act of domestic violence, is an exclusive scope of jurisdiction of Federal agencies. On the basis of the analysis of the amendments to the criminal code of Canada the author comes to the conclusion that the Federal government is moving towards stricter sanctions for crimes related to domestic violence that target children. On the basis of detailed analysis of normative legal acts of the provinces and territories regulating social relations in the sphere of combating domestic violence and child protection the author concludes that the provincial laws on protection against domestic violence are intended to support and complement the Federal measures to protect victims of domestic violence under the criminal code of Canada. In general, provinces and territories have extensive regulatory framework in this area that allows to pursue a consistent policy aimed at improving the retaliatory measures against domestic violence, when the victims are children, as well as the maximum leveling of the consequences of such acts.


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