OMB backs congressional effort to review programs

The Bush administration is eager for help from Congress in monitoring and improving the performance of federal programs, an Office of Management and Budget official said at a Senate hearing Thursday.

The administration is open to establishing a "formal partnership" with lawmakers interested in evaluating and streamlining programs, said Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management. He testified at a hearing on proposed legislation to set up a presidentially appointed 12-member program review commission.

The commission, suggested by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in legislation (S. 1668) introduced in September, would rate discretionary spending programs at civilian agencies and recommend eliminating those deemed wasteful or duplicative. Brownback first proposed the Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies (CARFA) last spring.

In an overall sense, Brownback's bill supports OMB's objective of creating a more results-oriented government, Johnson said. The question is not if Congress and the administration will partner to rate and streamline programs, but how, he said.

If established, the commission could base its recommendations for eliminating wasteful programs on formal evaluations completed by OMB each year, Johnson testified. "I think to do anything other than that is nuts," he said. Program evaluations take a long time and a lot of effort, he explained.

OMB evaluators use a 25- to 30-part questionnaire called the Program Assessment Rating Tool to annually review a sampling of federal programs and grade them as effective, moderately effective, adequate, ineffective, or results not demonstrated. In preparation for the fiscal 2005 budget season, OMB assessed 40 percent of programs. The administration will look at all programs by 2008.

Congress must make sure that, if created, the commission Brownback envisions remains objective, said Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia. The commission would need to establish nonbiased criteria for recommending that programs be eliminated, he said.

Under Brownback's proposal, CARFA would operate similarly to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Lawmakers would consider its recommendations on an expedited basis, voting them up or down without amendments.

If Congress approves the commission's recommended cuts, Brownback's legislation would ensure that agencies "make reasonable efforts" to relocate any employees who might lose jobs in resulting overhauls. But any reforms or cuts would still meet with loud opposition if they appear politically motivated, Voinovich predicted.

To prove objectivity, the commission would need to operate transparently, Johnson said. OMB makes PART scores available on the Web and in printed budget documents. "These evaluations have to be able to stand the test of public scrutiny," he said.

A congressional commission would likely smooth the path for OMB to influence final budget decisions, Johnson said. The administration recommends program funding based partly on ratings, but lawmakers are free to ignore the advice in budget deliberations. Some appropriations committees have been reluctant to embrace the administration's evaluation system.

"The biggest problem we must overcome in this effort is that almost every program in the federal government, no matter how ineffective or spendthrift, has its own corps of supporters," Voinovich said. "It is probably impossible to eliminate or reform any federal program without stepping on at least a few toes."

Lawmakers might be more trusting if recommendations to eliminate programs come by way of a commission, Johnson said. Such a panel, he said, would give Congress a "higher level of confidence" that proposed cuts are well thought out.