The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is worried about the Treasury Department's "GPRA vs. Y2K" problem.
Committee chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., has been urging agencies to link their budget requests to performance goals. In a May 14 letter to federal agency heads, Thompson said performance budgeting is a key component of implementing the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin responded to the Senator on June 14 with a letter emphasizing the department's commitment to performance budgeting.
"I very much share your interest in tying budget requests to performance expectations, and believe that Treasury has shown leadership in this area over the past several years," Rubin wrote. "Beginning with the FY 1997 budget, we have been integrating both our annual performance plan and annual performance report into our budget justifications, thus ensuring that performance data and funding requests are presented in tandem and readily available to congressional decision-makers."
A few days after Rubin sent his letter, Thompson brought up Treasury's progress on GPRA at the Senate Finance Committee's confirmation hearing for Rubin's successor, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Summers has been deputy secretary since August 1995 and has been at Treasury since April 1993.
The exchange between Thompson and Summers left folks at the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee concerned that GPRA isn't fully understood by the political leadership at Treasury.
Here's an excerpt from the June 17 exchange:
Thompson: I would like to talk about some of the management issues, challenges I guess we call them nowadays, that Treasury has, that you will be inheriting. As chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, we asked the [General Accounting Office] to analyze the Treasury Department's Year 2000 performance plan under the Government Performance and Results Act. As you know, under the Government Performance and Results Act we passed a few years ago, we're trying to get departments to come up with their goals, what they're really trying to perform. . . .
According to the GAO, Treasury's plan has improved very little if at all from last year's version and will be of limited use to the executive branch and congressional decision-makers. They rated Treasury's 2000 plan as one of the two least improved of the major agencies. . . .
I certainly want to get your commitment to address this, get the appropriate people involved and see if we can't do better in keeping, you know, this department that has achieved so much in so many other areas . . . and not really carrying out the functions that it's supposed to be under the GPRA law.
Summers: Senator Thompson, let me first assure you of my commitment with respect to this-these issues. I think perhaps it would be helpful for me to arrange a briefing for you with some of my colleagues from the IRS. While I'm not familiar in detail with the GAO report you are citing, the year 2000 issue is something [IRS] Commissioner [Charles] Rossotti and I have talked about a great deal and my understanding is that during the 1999 filing season, the one that was completed this April 15, the IRS essentially instituted its Y2K compliance without substantial incident.
Thompson: This doesn't really have as much to do with the Y2K problem as such. It's just the plan for the year 2000 to comply with the GPRA requirements of setting forth the plans for the department and so forth.
Summers: I'm sorry. I misunderstood you.
Thompson: It's not something that we deal with every day, but it's important. It's important-
Summers: I misunderstood your question. It is important. The broad-I was referring to the Y2K problem, but what you're referring to I now understand, is the broad GPRA-
Thompson: Right, the Government Performance and Results Act-
Summers: -process and we will work very hard at Treasury to make sure that there are clear and measurable goals. And that's something I look forward to talking to you about.
Thompson: Well, I appreciate that and we will work together on that.
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