Turning around negative view of government will take time, Obama official says

The federal government will have to tackle big-picture challenges in areas such as information technology and human capital to improve program performance and ultimately address low public trust in government, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Government Executive breakfast, Orszag declined to give the government a grade for its performance, joking that he is a "tough grader" and wouldn't want to publicly discuss the mark he would give. He acknowledged there are many significant gaps between where he would like to see government and where agencies are.

Overarching deficiencies in IT and the workforce, for example, keep agencies from improving, according to Orszag. "It is impossible to move to a new level of productivity and efficiency in the federal government without addressing those kinds of issues," he said.

Despite the nondiscretionary, nonsecurity budget freeze, the Obama administration still is willing to make investments where necessary, Orszag said. But the budget chief noted an influx of resources is not always necessary to tackle even the largest problems.

"In some cases it requires more, but in many cases it just requires doing even better than what we have," Orszag said. "More money is not always the solution, and in some cases it can actually be counterproductive, because it perpetuates processes and systems that are broken instead of forcing harder choices that can lead to higher productivity and more efficiency."

In this way, the spending freeze is actually "healthy," he said, because it forces agencies to streamline and become more efficient.

The administration also aims to reform human capital management without large increases in the federal workforce. Orszag noted recent staffing increases have stemmed from urgent and topical needs at the Defense, Homeland Security and Justice departments, as well as the short-term ramp-up required for the 2010 census.

"No one should expect continual increases in the workforce," he said.

Nevertheless, OMB considers human capital one of its top priorities, and Orszag is working with Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry on issues such as hiring reform.

Orszag warned that public opinion will be slow to change, even as agencies make strides.

"Even as we make progress on many of the topics, there still is an underlying issue in regard to the American public that I think is going to take a significant amount of time to correct," he said. "It has been a persistent problem."