NASA's Mission: 'Baloney'?

Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Clay Johnson is not a huge fan of NASA--or at least of the agency's mission statement. According to NASA's Web site, the agency's mission is "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research." At a GovExec Leadership Breakfast this morning, Johnson said the agency's goals and objectives tend to focus on exploration for exploration's sake. That's "baloney," Johnson said. "How can you be held accountable for that?" He said he has offered his views on the agency to President Bush, along with the suggestion that 10 percent of NASA missions should be underwritten by the private sector.

Other highlights from Johnson's appearance:

• He's not buying the idea espoused by some federal program managers that what they do can't be measured. "Why don't you just take off for about six months?" Johnson asked. "And if nothing happens, we just measured that we don't need you."
• He and other OMB officials amuse themselves by sending messages to members of Congress on specially produced letterhead that is color-coded to agencies' grades on the President's Management Agenda score card. (When agencies' grades on the traffic-light-style report card were mostly red and yellow, those colors were used on the letterhead; now it's largely green.) Johnson lamented that no one on the Hill has ever given any indication they noticed.