With just over a month to go before federal agencies' strategic plans are due to Congress under the Government Performance and Results Act, a key congressional leader warned that many agencies' draft plans are in danger of failing to meet the law's requirements.
In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Franklin Raines earlier this month, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said 17 of 24 major agencies' plans are missing elements required by the Results Act.
"While we are in the initial round of strategic plans, agencies had over three years since the enactment of the Results Act to prepare them," Armey said. "Therefore, it is inexcusable for agencies to submit for congressional consultations draft plans that do not even purport to address statutory elements."
The Results Act is designed to focus agencies' funding on results, rather than just the intentions of programs. It requires agencies to set outcome goals, measure their performance and report on their accomplishments to Congress.
Agencies have been meeting with congressional committees for the past several months to discuss their draft strategic plans, which are due to Congress September 30.
Congressional reviewers created a scorecard to measure agencies' compliance with Results Act requirements. The scorecard rates agencies on the statutory requirements of the act, including their mission statements, strategic goals and objectives, strategies to achieve those goals, ties between overall goals and annual performance goals, external factors that may affect agency operations, and program evaluations. The scorecard also examines whether agencies address duplication and overlap with other agencies, major management problems, reliable data for performance measurement, and the quality of agency consultations with stakeholders and Congress. A perfect score of 100 would mean agencies have addressed all those issues. Agencies can also earn five bonus points if they include performance measures in their plans.
The average agency grade based on interim evaluations dated August 6 was 30 points. The Social Security Administration earned the highest grade, 62 out of 105. The Department of Labor garnered the lowest score, 6.5.
While Armey commended some agencies for their strategic plans, particularly the Social Security Administration and the Department of Education, he said the scores "illustrate rather starkly how far agencies are from the ideal and how much work remains to be done."
Armey said the same scorecard will be used to evaluate the final plans.
To see Armey's letter and to see how each agency ranked on the congressional scorecard, click here.
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