Bringing Agencies Up to the Task

Government, our leaders have said, is to be tolerated, not admired: That government is best that governs least (Thomas Paine), government is the problem (Ronald Reagan), the era of big government is over (Bill Clinton).

But every so often tragedy or crisis conspire to work subtle changes in our view of government. When the space shuttle Columbia went down over Texas, carrying seven heroes to their deaths, who could not be proud of their achievements and of the drive for scientific discovery that animated them and their agency? What other nation would have the audacity and capacity to send these brave pioneers into orbit? When the Bush administration decided to make its case for war public at the United Nations, its stance might have offended some Americans, but who could not be proud of the secretary of State, his commanding presence and the respect he and our military and economic power demand in this troubled world?

These are but two examples of the primacy of government in the news in these difficult times. Not in my working life have so many agencies of government been so prominent in the news media. The American public is learning much about the importance of functions assigned to the public sector, and also about the resource shortages that impede their effectiveness. NASA's tragic accident served to focus the media on budget cuts that had raised red flags about shuttle safety measures. Similarly, story after story in major newspapers has exposed the austerity-induced gaps in the capabilities of agencies with important homeland security missions.

Exploring such problems has been a regular occupation for reporters at Government Executive, and this month we examine another agency so neglected as to require years of investment before it can attain the readiness the public now needs. In her visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Eliza Newlin Carney found facilities so decrepit that they have become dependent on private sector largesse to fund improvements.

In contrast, the new Transportation Security Administration achieved a high-profile success when it managed, with the help of contractors, to hire more than 60,000 baggage screeners and thus quickly to improve security in air travel. Brian Friel this month tells the behind-the-scenes story of that $1 billion hiring endeavor. Not so happy is Shane Harris' account of the tortured history of baggage screening technology, funded but never fully backed by the government until after the Sept. 11 crisis.

Crisis provokes action, but overcoming the accumulation of neglect can take years-as the case of the CDC and much of the U.S. public health system demonstrates. Yet not all of government is characterized by neglect-as the impressive capabilities of our military forces attest. George Cahlink visited Fort Stewart, Ga., as the 3rd Infantry Division was preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf, and filed a report this month about the amazingly complex logistics required to get it done. Americans can be proud of the job these young soldiers, and the government systems behind them, are doing to protect our freedom.