Performance at USDA

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Government Executive last week that he wants to bring more rigorous performance management to his department:

"Tying what we do to specific articulated results is a very important function of what the management side of this agency has to do," Vilsack said. "To do that not only requires a commitment by leadership to make that happen, the president has been very clear in his expectation in that respect."

While he didn't discuss pay-for-performance specifically, I'd be curious to see how Vilsack is going to handle the pay-for-performance demonstration project he's inherited at the Food Safety Inspection Service. If the Secretary intends to establish strong performance management measures before diving into pay for performance systems, he'll have to keep an eye on FSIS where he'll have no choice but to move both together in tandem.