Obama sweeps to victory; gets chance to deliver on reform promises

Democrat Barack Obama won a decisive victory in the presidential election on Tuesday night, ending a historic election and beginning the process of fulfilling a pledge to improve government efficiency and transparency.

When Obama takes the oath of office in 77 days, he will face numerous challenges, both domestically and abroad. The Illinois Democrat will inherit a looming economic recession, two wars -- one of which, Iraq, he has pledged to end within the next 16 months -- and an unprecedented federal budget deficit that could put a crimp in his plans for fixing health care, Social Security and making the nation energy independent.

Somewhat less immediate, but no less important, will be meeting his signature promise to federal employees, both present and future, delivered at a national service summit on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. There, he said that part of his job as president would be "to make government cool again."

He struck a somewhat different tone in his victory speech after the election results came in. "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president," he said, "and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."

To achieve his goals, Obama has said he will radically change how government works, from revising how federal programs are evaluated to opening up his administration's operations for citizens to critique.

Obama has vowed to reduce spending and root out waste by reviewing every line of the federal budget to eliminate underperforming or unnecessary programs and to make more essential programs work better and cost less.

He also has said he would "fundamentally reconfigure" the Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool, which is used to evaluate how government programs are working. Performance goals for programs, Obama said, would be altered to focus more on congressional intent and to include feedback from the people served by the programs.

"Sen. Obama will have an agenda that is really focused on results in the agencies and ensuring that the government is working effectively with real accountability for the public," the campaign's domestic policy director, Neera Tanden, said in an August interview. "He has been very focused on ensuring that dollars are well spent. . . . And he will be looking at this in a systematic approach of ensuring that we have real information about how programs are working; that they are accessible to the public and that decision-makers are making decisions not only on numbers, but based on impact in solving problems."

Federal employees can expect a return to something like the Clinton-era "reinventing government" framework for streamlining operations and improving efficiency, although the initiative likely will bear a different name.

Obama has said he would create a White House "SWAT team," composed of government officials and a new chief performance officer, to review every federal program. Government managers who are failing to achieve results would be fired and funding for such programs could be cut, the president-elect said.

Although he has been endorsed by most federal labor unions, it remains unclear how Obama will tackle a number of issues important to government employees, most notably federal pay for performance. The senator has criticized the rules implementing the Defense Department's pay-for-performance program. He told one labor union in September that he would "substantially revise these regulations and strongly consider a complete repeal."

"If you look at Sen. Obama's record you see he has a clear interest in ensuring that federal workers have the tools and resources to do their jobs," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "We are satisfied that there is a commitment on his part to the working men and women and that he is on the side of federal employees."

Federal contractors can expect to see their belts tightened somewhat under Obama. He has said he would reduce spending on contracts by at least 10 percent, saving $40 billion annually, though he has not explained how he would accomplish this. Obama also has called for increasing the size and training of the government's acquisition workforce, conducting more frequent audits of large contracts, and reducing the use of sole-source and cost-plus contracts.

"We are likely to see a management agenda that either implicitly or explicitly recognizes the critical role contractors play in enabling the government to meet its many agendas and, at the same time, pursues a range of initiatives to improve both the transparency and performance of the federal acquisition system," said Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, a contractor trade group. "Based on a limited number of campaign statements and speeches, there is reason to believe that the new administration will focus more on the systemic issues, specifically enhancing and empowering the federal acquisition workforce, as opposed to incidental occurrences. Focusing more on the former than the latter could have a meaningful, positive effect."

Transparency of operations has been a key tenet of Obama's government reform platform and federal workers can expect these policies to permeate his administration.

Obama wants the public to have five days to examine pending legislation and to offer comments before he signs bills. Meetings between agency representatives and lobbyists regarding regulatory policy-making also will be made public, as will the names of corporations that benefit from earmarks or tax bills. And Obama's Cabinet members will be asked to host periodic national broadband town hall meetings to generate more outside-the Beltway citizen involvement.

"I'll make our government open and transparent so that anyone can ensure that our business is the people's business," Obama said during a Sept. 22 speech in Green Bay, Wis. "As [Supreme Court] Justice Louis Brandeis once said, 'Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.' As president, I will make it impossible for congressmen or lobbyists to slip pork-barrel projects or corporate welfare into laws when no one is looking, because when I am president, meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public. No more secrecy."

Throughout his 20-month campaign, Obama vowed to curb special interest politics, both in the White House and at federal agencies.

Obama has said appointees will be prohibited from working on regulations or contracts related to a previous employer for at least two years. Officials who leave his administration will not be able to lobby the White House for the remainder of his administration, and gifts from registered lobbyists will be forbidden. And all new federal employees will be required to sign a form affirming that they were not offered the job based on political affiliation or financial contributions.

Under the Obama administration, the technology sector could also see a boost, both in prominence and procurement.

Obama is expected to name the first federal chief technology officer and national cyber adviser, creating the government's two highest-level technology positions. Industry analysts said recently they were expecting a nearly 4 percent increase in government IT spending during the next five years, regardless of the outcome of the election.

"There is going to be a huge emphasis on technology," said Olga Grkavac, executive vice president of the Information Technology Association of America, an industry trade group. "And that is encouraging. The use of technology in his campaign has been groundbreaking."