A prominent Republican Senator is urging congressional lawmakers and federal agency leaders to link budget requests to performance goals.
Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, called on fellow lawmakers to use agencies' fiscal 2000 performance plans as a tool for "holding agencies accountable for their proposed results."
"These plans contain program goals and measures that Congress can use to gain a clearer understanding of what results are to be achieved through the programs in relation to what is being spent on those programs," Thompson said in a letter last month to chairmen of Senate and House committees.
In a May 14 letter co-signed by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Thompson urged the heads of the 24 largest federal agencies to explain more clearly what results they expect to achieve with the money Congress gives them.
"Congress needs performance information to review the President's budget, prepare its own, and make the difficult choices this entails," Thompson and Stevens wrote. "Only with such information could we improve government performance and increase citizens' confidence in their government."
Thompson urged decisionmakers to review two recent General Accounting Office reports (GGD/AIMD-99-69 and AIMD/GGD-99-67) that suggest ways to improve agencies' annual performance plans. Under the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act, agencies have created two annual performance plans so far, one for fiscal 1999 and one for fiscal 2000. In March 2000, agencies will submit their first annual performance reports to Congress. The reports will say whether or not agencies met their fiscal 1999 performance goals.
Congressional staffers are reviewing agencies' fiscal 2000 performance plans. The Republican leadership is developing score sheets for grading the usefulness of the plans.