Credit for Fixing High-Risk Problems

Here's Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, writing in the New York Times today about GAO's release of its high-risk list of faltering federal programs:

"We are also dropping two issues from the high-risk list: the Department of Defense's personnel security clearance program, which processes hundreds of thousands of security clearances annually for service members and civilians, and the 2010 Census. Both dealt sufficiently with identified vulnerabilities to warrant their removal. Three factors contributed to this success: high-level support from agencies, clear measures with which to gauge progress and strong Congressional oversight. Credit goes to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for holding the agencies involved accountable."

With all due respect, there's another group of people that deserve some credit here: Those in the agencies who actually did the work to fix the problems. High-level political support in agencies and congressional oversight are important factors, but they're not what gets the job done in addressing age-old problems and emerging issues. That task falls to career federal employees on the front lines.

In fact, the flip side of support for reforms from higher-ups and congressional overseers is that sometimes the folks at the top push underfunded initiatives, or those with conflicting goals, and sometimes oversight agencies provide unclear mandates. These can be key factors in creating the kinds of problems that land programs on the high-risk list in the first place.