Senate passes, House rejects bill mandating new performance goals, better reporting

The Senate unanimously passed a measure Thursday requiring agencies to set new, clear performance goals and report on them in a more transparent way.

On Friday, however, the House failed to approve the bill. It garnered a majority of votes, but not the two-thirds required to approve the measure under suspension of House rules.

The bill, known as the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act (H.R. 2142), was introduced by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. It is the first significant update of the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act.

The new measure would require agencies to designate senior officials to serve as chief operating and performance improvement officers. The COO likely would be an agency deputy secretary while the performance improvement officer would be a senior executive, the bill states.

These two officials would be responsible for finding significant cost savings through the elimination of redundant programs, and for better coordinating common administrative functions such as purchasing.

The new legislation also mandates that agencies post quarterly performance updates on a single government website instead of submitting them to Congress annually.

In addition, the bill requires agencies to identify little-used or outdated reports required by the executive branch or Congress, with an aim toward reducing such reports by 10 percent within a year.

"With concerns growing over the mounting federal deficit and national debt, the American people deserve to know that every dollar they send to Washington is being used to its utmost potential," said Carper. "This legislation will go a long way in improving the performance and efficiency of the federal government and bringing the results our nation demands."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said, "the reforms contained in this bill will help federal agencies plan, measure and report their outcomes, and thus the legislation goes to the heart of improving agency performance and holding agencies accountable for attaining measurable results."

The legislation hit a snag in the Senate in early November when procurement analysts raised questions about a provision that some believed could prevent businesses from assisting with GPRA-required plans -- a lucrative business in the Washington region for federal consulting firms.

The House passed an earlier version of the legislation in June.

Robert Brodsky contributed to this report.