CROSS-AGENCY PRIORITY GOALS

Established by the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals are a tool used to accelerate progress on a limited number of priority areas where implementation requires active collaboration between multiple agencies, overcoming organizational barriers to achieve better performance than one agency can achieve on its own.

Set or revised at least every four years, CAP Goals include outcome-oriented goals that cover a limited number of crosscutting policy areas as well as management goals focused on management improvements across the Federal Government in areas of financial management, strategic human capital management, information technology management, procurement and acquisition management, and real property management.

A series of 16 CAP Goals were announced in the 2015 Budget with clearly named accountable officials, data-driven reviews that incorporated a broad range of quantitative and qualitative inputs, and reporting to the public through a common website as a framework to drive performance improvements on cross-government collaboration and tackle government-wide management challenges affecting most agencies.

Mission

Effectiveness: Deliver smarter, better, faster service to citizens

Cybersecurity
Statement:

Improve cybersecurity performance through ongoing awareness of information security, vulnerabilities, and threats impacting the operating information environment, ensuring that only authorized users have access to resources and information; and the implementation of technologies and processes that reduce the risk of malware.

Overview:

The White House will focus agency efforts on improving the security of their information operations by implementing the Administration’s priority cybersecurity capabilities and developing performance based metrics to measure their success.  The Administration’s priority cybersecurity capabilities are:

  • Information Security Continuous Monitoring Mitigation (ISCM) – Provide ongoing observation, assessment, analysis, and diagnosis of an organization’s cybersecurity: posture, hygiene, and operational readiness.
  • Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) – Implement a set of capabilities that ensure users must authenticate to information technology resources and have access to only those resources that are required for their job function.
  • Anti-Phishing & malware defense – Implement technologies, processes and training that reduce the risk of malware introduced through email and malicious or compromised web sites.

While all Federal agencies are subject to the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements, The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and General Services Administration play key leadership roles in developing metrics, standards, and governance processes related to the Cybersecurity CAP goal. 

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The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Statement:

Promote greater openness and timeliness throughout the Federal Government by improving FOIA processes and enhancing the requester experience.

Overview:

On his first full day in office, the President issued a memorandum directing that agencies should adopt a presumption of openness when implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  As the President said, “In the face of doubt, openness prevails.”  Over the past seven and a half years, the Administration has made good on this promise, processing more than 4.6 million FOIA requests, releasing unparalleled numbers of datasets to the public, and making it easier for citizens to access information from their government. 

On June 30, 2016, the President signed into law the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 – nearly 50 years after President Johnson signed the original FOIA into law.  This critical legislation reflects the progress made by the Administration, codifies a number of openness and transparency principles, and ensures that the Administration’s track record of openness is institutionalized throughout government and carries forward for years to come.  Concurrent with the signing of the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, the White House released a Fact Sheet committing the Administration to:

  • Utilizing the Chief FOIA Officers Council and FOIA Advisory Committee to address FOIA’s greatest challenges;

  • Promoting broader release of records through a “release to one is a release to all” presumption;

  • Launching a centralized FOIA request portal; and

  • Issuing new guidance on open government principles and actions.

The Administration also announced the creation of a FOIA Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal as a framework for tracking progress on the Administration’s commitments and key requirements of the Act.  Under the cross-agency leadership of the Department of Justice, National Archives and Records Administration, and Office of Management and Budget, the Administration remains committed to assisting agencies in their efforts to improve implementation of the FOIA and leveraging technology to achieve a new era of open government.  

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Service Members and Veterans Mental Health
Statement:

Improve mental health outcomes for Service Members, Veterans and their Families

Overview:

Improve mental health outcomes for Service Members, Veterans and their Families.  Leveraging the successes made by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in implementing the President’s Executive Order on improving access to mental health services for Veterans, Service members and their families, identify and build on programs and initiatives that have been effective in reducing barriers to seeking care, enhancing access to and improving the quality of mental health care and support available to Service members, Veterans and their families, and support innovative research on mental health and substance use care and treatment for these target populations.  To achieve these objectives, the Domestic Policy Council (DPC), the National Security Council (NSC), VA, DoD and HHS will lead and synchronize activities across the interagency to achieve the following:

  • Reduce barriers: Reduce barriers for Service members, Veterans and their families to seeking mental health treatment and support by identifying, expanding, and promoting programs, initiatives, and efforts to reduce negative perceptions, increasing awareness of resources, identifying needs of military-connected families, and linking with community resources.  Evaluate and improve VA and DoD public awareness campaigns to overcome negative perceptions and promote awareness; evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the Military OneSource platform/program and the Veteran and Military Crisis Lines and plan continued program improvements; continue to host VA Mental Health Summits to identify unmet needs of Veterans and Veterans’ families, and to identify and enhance understanding of community-based programs and services to support mental health needs of veterans and their families. 
  • Enhance access: Enhance Service member, Veteran and family access to mental health care and support by identifying, consolidating and building on successful DoD and VA programs and initiatives.  Evaluate and improve existing VA-community collaboration pilot programs and promote expansion of formal arrangements and collaborations with community providers; expand telemental health care to meet demand and facilitate access to care; build on efforts to integrate mental health and substance use care into primary care programs; support an open source directory of vetted resources to aid community-based providers, Service members, Veterans and their families in identifying available resources; extend data sharing across DoD and VA health care locations to ensure that critical data in DoD and VA medical records are viewable by clinicians, health professionals and program administrators who require access to treat Service members, Veterans and their families.
  • Support research: Identify and develop more effective diagnostic and treatment methodologies and metrics to improve mental health and substance use outcomes, including for traumatic brain injury (TBI), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions.  Fulfill commitments from the National Research Action Plan and chart next steps; continue development and testing of metrics proposed by the Interagency Task Force on Military and Veterans Mental Health and develop new metrics in the area of substance use disorders; evaluate the impact of ongoing DoD and VA research to improve diagnosis and treatment of TBI and PTSD and related conditions.

 

Members of the Interagency Taskforce on Military and Veterans Mental Health:
Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Defense
Department of Health and Human Services
Domestic Policy Council
National Security Council
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Department of Education
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Science and Technology Policy

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Efficiency: Maximize value of Federal spending

Climate Change (Federal Actions)
Statement:

More than double Federal government consumption of electricity from renewable sources to 20% by 2020 and improve energy efficiency at Federal facilities as part of the wider strategy to reduce the Federal Government’s direct greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2025 (2008 baseline).

Overview:

On March 19, 2015, the President issued Executive Order 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade, which set forth ambitious climate, energy, and environmental sustainability goals for Federal agencies over the next decade.  Executive departments and agencies have been among our Nation’s leaders as the United States works to build a clean energy economy that will sustain our prosperity and the health of our people and our environment for generations to come. Federal leadership in energy, environmental water, transportation fleets, buildings, and acquisition management will continue to drive national greenhouse gas reductions and support preparations for the impacts of climate change. The Federal Government has the opportunity to significantly reduce direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2025, while at the same time fostering innovation, reducing spending, and strengthening the communities in which our Federal facilities operate. 

Employing this strategy for the next decade calls for expanded and updated Federal environmental performance goals with a clear overarching objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across Federal operations and the Federal supply chain.  Goals for greenhouse gas emissions reduction (40% by 2025), renewable electricity (30% by 2025), clean energy (25% by 2025), and performance contracting ($4 billion in awarded contracts by Dec. 2016) are already well established in the Federal community. The enhanced target for each of these goals will require agencies to sharpen their focus on achieving the goals through existing mechanisms and new technologies that enhance efficiency and use of clean energy.

CEQ and OMB have worked closely to ensure that Federal agencies understand the necessary steps to pursuing the new environmental sustainability goals and those efforts are supported by an interagency Steering Committee.  Pursuit of these sustainability goals will involve at least 25 of the largest Federal agencies. Success will be greatly enhanced by the cross-cutting nature of the goals and the similarity in the tools and procedures used for implementation.

While all Federal agencies have an important role to play in ensuring the Government meets its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, key delivery agencies include: The General Services Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Department of Homeland Security.

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People and Culture: Deploy a world-class workforce and create a culture of excellence

Insider Threat and Security Clearance Reform
Statement:

Promote and protect our nation’s interests by ensuring aligned, effective, efficient, secure, and reciprocal vetting processes to support a trusted Federal workforce.

Overview:

In recent years, the Federal Government has experienced a series of significant security and insider threat incidents that resulted in the loss of life, the unauthorized disclosures of massive amounts of classified information and the compromise of personal information. In the wake of increasing threats and incidents, the President directed a series of reviews to examine current security, suitability/fitness, and credentialing processes and to recommend areas in need of reform. The interagency reviews identified problem areas and made specific recommendations, which were approved by the Performance Accountability Council (PAC). The PAC developed the Strategic Intent to build upon these efforts and create a lasting impact by providing overarching strategic direction to personnel security, suitability/fitness, and credentialing reform efforts for the next five years.  

The Strategic Intent represents our framework for sustaining progress mandated by the February 2014 Suitability and Security Processes Review Report to the President, the January 2016 PAC Review of Background Investigations, relevant legislation, and other key drivers. It builds on progress since the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the subsequent, significant reform efforts that resulted in greater standardization and alignment of suitability and security processes. Through this framework, the PAC will work with other members of the Executive Branch to drive continuous process improvement to personnel security, suitability/fitness, and credentialing programs and address evolving threats. While we cannot eliminate risk altogether, it is imperative that we work across disciplines to maximize our collective efforts to mitigate the risks we face, while ensuring appropriate protections for privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. We must ensure measures to improve these programs avoid imposing unreasonable burdens on the Federal workforce that could negatively impact operations. Therefore, the Federal Government will pursue a balanced approach by addressing the risks posed by personnel who could do significant harm by virtue of the nature of their position.

These reforms will further support ongoing Insider Threat Program implementation by providing earlier detection and improving the quality of vetting. The improved attention to cybersecurity will reinforce efforts to protect sensitive mission data, including personally-identifiable information. 

 

The Performance Accountability Council is comprised of:

•Office of Management and Budget

•Office of the Director of National Intelligence

•Office of Personnel Management

•Department of Defense

•Department of Justice

•Department of Homeland Security

•Federal Bureau of Investigation

•Department of the Treasury

As well as:

•Department of Energy

•General Services Administration

•Department of State

•Department of Veterans Affairs

•Department of Labor

•National Archives and Records Administration

•National Security Council

•Senior Information Sharing and Safeguarding Steering Committee

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Economic Growth: Support innovation, economic growth, and job creation

Job-Creating Investment
Statement:

Improve federal investment tools and resources, while also increasing interagency coordination, to encourage foreign direct investment, spurring job growth.

Overview:

Bringing jobs back to America requires a comprehensive economic plan.  Encouraging investment in America is a core part of that plan, a key driver to bringing jobs back to America, especially within the manufacturing sector which represents the largest share of foreign direct investment stock. According to AT Kearney’s Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, confidence in the U.S. as a location for FDI is high, ranking as the top destination for investment ahead of China, Brazil, Canada, and India.1 The U.S. remains the world’s largest economy and is also the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the world. Over the last ten years, U.S. affiliates of foreign companies have employed more than five million workers, the majority of which are high-paying manufacturing jobs. On average, jobs created by FDI in United States pay up to 30% more.2  However, due to global capital mobility and increased foreign competition, we need to take steps to maintain and grow our share of global investment.

Historically, we have left our states and cities to compete for investments with a country’s investment promotion agency, limiting our opportunities to clearly demonstrate our commitment to attracting investment and to leverage our advantages as a top destination for investment. In 2011, through Executive Order, the U.S. launched SelectUSA, the first Federal effort to promote and facilitate inbound business investment. The E.O. created the Interagency Investment Working Group (IIWG) to further design and implement the first-ever coordinated U.S. investment promotion authority. As a driver for success, the global investment team, consisting of both SelectUSA headquarters in DC and investment teams at posts led by Ambassadors, will increase the number of active investment cases touched to encourage business investments.

At the first SelectUSA Investment Summit in Oct 31-Nov. 1 2013, the President reformed SelectUSA, creating a number of firsts: for the first time there will be a clear system for advocacy for high-priority, job-creating investments, driven by the most senior Administration officials all the way up to the President; for the first time there will be a single point of contact for ready investors looking to bring jobs and production to the U.S.; lastly, the Administration is engaging in unprecedented coordinated support for states and localities to attract investment.

Key contributing agencies to the Job-Creating Investment CAP goal include the Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration, US Department of Agriculture, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, and Export-Import Bank of the U.S.

1 THE 2013 A.T. Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index. Back to Business: Optimism Amid Uncertainty.

2 http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/fdiesaissuebriefno2061411final.pdf

 

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Infrastructure Permitting Modernization
Statement:

Modernize the Federal permitting and review process for major infrastructure projects to reduce uncertainty for project applicants, reduce the aggregate time it takes to conduct reviews and make permitting decisions by half, and produce measurably better environmental and community outcomes.

Overview:

Building a 21st century infrastructure in a manner that safeguards our communities and the environment is an important component of President Obama’s effort to strengthen our Nation’s economy, create new jobs, and improve U.S. competitiveness in the global market.  Federal agencies seek to ensure that as these major infrastructure projects are proposed, potential impacts on safety, security, and environmental and community resources such as air, water, land, and historical and cultural resources are considered and minimized. Over time, the process and legal requirements for the permitting and review of major infrastructure projects have developed in a siloed and ad-hoc way, creating complex processes that in some cases have taken years or longer to complete.  Although there are several reasons why a major infrastructure project may be delayed (including applicant funding uncertainty and state and local reviews), over the past three years the Administration has undertaken an ambitious effort to modernize the Federal government’s role in permitting and review processes.

To ensure his Administration took action to modernize these permitting and review processes, on March 22, 2012, the President signed Executive Order 13604, Improving Performance of Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects and subsequently a Presidential Memorandum on May 17, 2013, charging an interagency Steering Committee to lead the development of a plan to turn best practices into standard practice.  This Implementation Plan identifies four strategies, 15 reforms, and nearly 100 both near-term and long-term milestones.  The strategies are:

  • Strategy 1: Institutionalize Interagency Coordination and Transparency, by formalizing interagency coordination policies, including early identification of a lead agency; synchronizing Federal review and permitting processes and decisions; standardizing the use of the Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard; and identifying best practices for early engagement with State, Local and Tribal governments.
  • Strategy 2:  Improve Project Planning, Siting, and Application Quality by developing tools to assist project applicants in planning for a major infrastructure project and support effective and timely decision-making by agency staff once the Federal processes begins. 
  • Strategy 3: Improve Permitting Reviews and Mitigation by supporting agency staff in effectively implementing existing regulations, policies, and guidance as well as identifying barriers. This strategy also includes policies to facilitate advance planning for the mitigation of project impacts and landscape- or watershed-level approaches to mitigation, where appropriate.
  • Strategy 4: Drive Continued Improvement.  Fully implementing these actions and achieving the President’s goal will require a team dedicated to implementing the reforms on an interagency basis, further analyze agency processes, and identify additional reforms.  This strategy includes a proposal to establish a dedicated interagency team to support the ongoing improvement of Federal permitting and review responsibilities for major infrastructure projects.  In addition, this strategy includes a proposal to develop reliable metrics to track timeframes and outcomes for communities and the environment.

You can now access the Implementation Plan and Fact Sheet.

This effort is led by the Office of Management and Budget as Chair of the interagency Steering Committee (OMB), in coordination with the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the Department of Transportation as the host of the interagency team.

For more information please see the Permitting Dashboard. 

Members of the Steering Committee on Federal Infrastructure Permitting and Review Process Improvement (Steering Committee) include: 
Office of Management and Budget
Council on Environmental Quality
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Department of Agriculture
Department of the Army
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of the Interior
Department of Transportation
Environmental Protection Agency
Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation

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STEM Education
Statement:

Improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education by implementing the Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan, announced in May 2013, specifically: 

  • Improve STEM instruction
  • Increase and sustain youth and public engagement in STEM
  • Enhance STEM experience of undergraduate students
  • Better serve groups historically under-represented in STEM fields
  • Design graduate education for tomorrow’s STEM workforce
  • Build new models for leveraging assets and expertise
  • Build and use evidence-based approaches
Overview:

Improving STEM education is a priority for the President and this Administration. Advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have long been central to our Nation’s ability to manufacture better and smarter products, improve health care, develop cleaner and more efficient domestic energy sources, preserve the environment, safeguard national security, and grow the economy. For the United States to maintain its preeminent position in the world it will be essential that the Nation continues to lead in STEM, but evidence indicates that current educational pathways are not leading to a sufficiently large and well-trained STEM workforce to achieve this goal, nor is the U.S. education system cultivating a culture of STEM education necessary for a STEM-literate public. Thus it is essential that the United States enhance U.S. students’ engagement in STEM disciplines and inspire and equip many more students to excel in STEM fields.

A number of Federal agencies place a high priority on STEM education and have developed education initiatives unique to their agency’s mission, needs, and resources.  To better leverage Federal assets, expertise, and partnerships toward a goal of national importance, a cross agency priority to improve STEM education has been developed to increase agency coordination and use of evidence-based approaches to improve P-12 STEM instruction, increase and sustain youth and public engagement in STEM, enhance the STEM experience of undergraduate students, better serve groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields, design graduate education for tomorrow’s STEM workforce, build new models for leveraging assets and expertise, and build and use evidence-based approaches. 

Members of the Committee on STEM education (CoSTEM) are:
Office of Science and Technology Policy
National Science Foundation
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Department of Agriculture 
Department of Commerce 
Department of Defense 
Department of Education 
Department of Energy 
Department of Health and Human Services 
Department of Homeland Security 
Department of the Interior 
Department of Transportation 
Environmental Protection Agency 
Office of Management and Budget
Domestic Policy Council
Smithsonian Institution

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Management

Effectiveness: Deliver smarter, better, faster service to citizens

Customer Service
Statement:

Deliver world-class customer services to citizens by making it faster and easier for individuals and businesses to complete transactions and have a positive experience with government.

 

Overview:

The American people deserve a Government that is responsive to their needs. Citizens and businesses expect government services to be well-designed, efficient, and generally comparable to the services they receive from leading private sector organizations. Whether they call the IRS for an answer to a tax question or visit a Social Security Administration office to adjust their benefits, they should experience high-quality interactions with the Federal Government. Despite some important strides to improve customer service over the past fifteen years, too often many Federal Government services fail to meet the expectations of citizens and business, creating unnecessary hassle and cost for citizens, businesses, and the government itself.  The Federal Government must keep pace with the public’s expectations and transform its customer services – soliciting regular customer feedback, streamlining processes, and delivering consistent quality service across customer channels.

To that end, in April 2011 the President issued an Executive Order requiring each agency to develop a customer service plan that identified implementation steps for their customer service activities, including a "signature initiative" that uses technology to improve the customer experience. Agencies posted the plans on their Open Government websites in October 2011, and this goal will build on these plans to streamline and improve customer service delivery.

To build upon the progress being made by individual agencies, the Administration is taking action to deliver improved customer service across the Federal enterprise.  The Administration will:

  • Streamline transactions.  Too often the processes and procedures of government have been developed piecemeal over time, and have not been regularly reexamined to ensure they are designed with the user experience in mind.  The Administration will identify transactions with a high impact on a significant number of citizens and streamline processes, better meet customer needs, and use performance measures to improve services.  This includes areas such as TSA security screening, veterans’ pension and disability applications, income-based repayment of student loans, Social Security, and taxpayer assistance.
  • Develop standards for high impact services.  Citizen expectations for government services are continually increasing, driven by improvements in technology and the high quality services provided by the private sector.  Government leaders have a responsibility to understand customer expectations and service needs, and continually evaluate and improve their effectiveness in meeting those needs.  To facilitate this, many government programs that provide direct services to the public can benefit from setting customer service standards, clearly communicating these standards to customers, and ensuring these standards are being met.  The Administration will identify best practices in setting customer service standards, such as placing an emphasis on first contact resolution, and facilitate implementation of these practices for high impact services.
  • Utilize technology to improve the customer experience.  The Administration will work to deliver world-class customer services to citizens by making it faster and easier for individuals and businesses to complete transactions with government online.  Given the continually growing importance of online services, the Administration has established a separate Cross-Agency Priority Goal to focus resources and attention on this priority area. 

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Smarter IT Delivery
Statement:

Improve outcomes and customer satisfaction with Federal services through smarter IT delivery and stronger agency accountability for success. 

Overview:

Innovations in information technology have transformed how customers receive key government services, information, and benefits. Smarter IT delivery will dramatically improve customer satisfaction with federal technology services by strengthening agency accountability and implementing strategies in the following areas:

  • Get the best talent working inside government. The Administration will work with agencies to utilize existing authorities to attract top talent and consult with Agencies, the Office of Personnel Management, and Congressional stakeholders to expand the use of flexible hiring authorities. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will also work with Agencies to incubate and scale new approaches to the design, development and delivery of top digital services and transactions.
  • Get the best companies working with government. The Administration’s efforts in this area will focus on streamlining the Federal IT acquisition process. Specific initiatives include creating more visibility of contracting opportunities for small, innovative companies; maximizing the use of available contracting flexibilities and best practices; and recommending administrative changes to the IT procurement processes.
  • Put the right processes and practices in place to drive outcomes and accountability. OMB will create and apply a new oversight and management process to highest impact IT investments in the Federal government. This process will include the best IT development and management approaches employed by the public and private sectors.  Lessons learned from this oversight process will be used to expand best practices across all agency IT investments.

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Efficiency: Maximize value of Federal spending

Category Management
Statement:

Expand the use of high-quality, high-value strategic sourcing solutions in order to improve the government’s buying power and reduce contract duplication. 

Overview:

Federal contracting is often seen as a highly complex process that ultimately leads to less innovation, higher costs, and weaker performance. Today, proposals for contracts are lengthy, overly prescriptive, and laden with Government-specific requirements. There is also staggering duplication of contracts across Government and very little information sharing between agencies on pricing or other important contractual information. In order to fundamentally improve how taxpayer dollars are used in the Federal contracting space, the Administration is embarking on a comprehensive initiative to enhance collaboration and cooperation and drive greater innovation and improved performance through the implementation of Category Management.

This cross-agency priority (CAP) goal is focused on category management and will build on the progress made in the strategic sourcing initiative, leveraging the consolidated purchasing power of the Government to buy smarter and reduce duplication.  Category management is a new, more strategic approach that will enable the federal government to buy smarter and more like a single enterprise.  It involves identifying core areas of spend, developing heightened levels of expertise, leveraging shared best practices, providing streamlined solutions for acquisition, and managing supply and demand.  The objective is to increase efficiency and effectiveness while reducing costs and redundancies.  The first area of focus for category management is information technology and the CAP goal will support this initiative.  The objectives of the Category Management CAP goal will be expanded as the Category Management Leadership Council endorses other areas of focus.  The CAP Goal metrics can be found on the “supporting materials tabs” and progress updates will begin in the final Quarter of FY15.  

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Shared Services
Statement:

Strategically expand high-quality, high value shared services to improve performance and efficiency throughout government.

Overview:

In order to improve the way government delivers services externally, we need to aggressively reform the way government delivers service internally. If we are focused, committed, systematic, and intentional, we can make the sort of transformative changes in our service delivery approach that have altered the course of the commercial retail marketplace and reinvigorated American manufacturing. 

We need to commit to driving efficiencies by creating opportunities to leverage existing resources and pool the government’s buying power.  This involves building common standards for underlying support activities and systems and driving out redundancy in administrative service provision.  It means changing agency expectations and incentives for spending.  And it means rethinking the way that the government considers and funds long-term investments in the systems and infrastructure that support customer service delivery. 

The Federal Government will leverage the Executive Councils to develop common standards and benchmarks to measure shared service utilization, performance, and cost. Mandate those standards and benchmarks for common administrative services. From these standards and benchmarks we will drive efficiencies and greater performance by: 1) increasing the capacity of the Federal Shared Service Providers (SSPs) at DOI, USDA, Treasury, HHS, DOT and DOD; and 2) requiring use of lower-cost, higher-performing Shared Services for all agencies and SSPs which cannot meet established targets. We will target the following areas for Shared Services (listed in order of priority): financial, HR, technology, and acquisition.

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Benchmark and Improve Mission-Support Operations
Statement:

Improve administrative efficiency and increase the adoption of effective management practices by establishing cost and quality benchmarks of mission-support operations and giving agency decision-makers better data to compare options, allocate resources, and improve processes.

Overview:

Since taking office, this Administration has taken action to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of core administrative services.  The Administration has closed or consolidated underutilized field offices, eliminated duplicative or overlapping programs, cut unnecessary travel and conference spending, and leveraged the buying power of the Federal Government to save money on the purchase of commodities such as office supplies and shipping services. 

The Administration will sustain and intensify these efforts in the second term by:

  • Establishing cost and quality benchmarks for core/administrative operations, such as HR, Finance, Acquisition, and IT.  We will leverage the agency executive councils to develop common standards and benchmarks to measure shared service utilization, performance, and cost.  We will then use those standards and benchmarks for common administrative services as the baseline for driving continuous improvements in performance.
  • Cutting improper payments. Building on work already completed which has significantly reduced improper payments, we will advance data analytics and improved technology through the “Do Not Pay” tool to prevent these payments from happening, with the goal of a government-wide improper payment rate of 3 percent or less by the end of 2016.
  • Saving on real estate costs.  By expanding on the “Freeze the Footprint” policy issued in 2012, we will begin publically tracking the Government’s adherence to a fixed baseline, and will continue to work with Agencies to pursue mobile workforce strategies and tighter internal controls. We will also work to improve the quality of data on the real estate inventory, and to develop key performance metrics. To view agency action toward implementing the Freeze the Footprint policy, please click here.

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Economic Growth: Support innovation, economic growth, and job creation

Open Data
Statement:

Fuel entrepreneurship and innovation and improve government efficiency and effectiveness by unlocking the value of government data and adopting management approaches that promote interoperability and openness of this data.

Overview:

Open and publically accessible data strengthens our democracy by increasing public participation in government, promoting transparency and accountability, increasing efficiency and effectiveness in government operations, and empowering individuals and businesses to create jobs and new industries that improve Americans’ quality of life.

The Administration has made significant progress in improving the management of information resources to increase interoperability and openness. In executive order 13642 President Obama outlined a clear vision for “Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information” wherever possible and legally permissible. The subsequently released Open Data Policy (OMB memorandum M-13-13) directed agencies to effectively “manage the information as a strategic asset” throughout its lifecycle and make data open by default to the extent permitted by law, while ensuring strict controls to safeguard individual privacy, confidentiality, and national security. 

As a direct result, Americans are getting better access to government information and services they need. Homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages now get prompt, clear responses because companies are competing based on open consumer financial product complaint data published by CFPB, and can stay in their homes. Similarly, patients can now comparison shop to see which hospitals have the best outcomes and best prices thanks to data published by Medicaid and HHS—including a new dataset that for the first time shows what hospitals charge for inpatient services associated with the 100 most common kinds of hospital stays, revealing huge variations in hospital charges across the country and even within metro areas.

To drive further impact and results, the Open Data CAP Goal will focus on a series of government-wide objectives, strategies and major metrics that facilitate and gauge the outcome-oriented and management improvement goals of Open Data.  Metrics will prioritize three channels of impact measurement: impact on economic value creation organizations, impact on existing public program outcomes, and impact on internal government efficiency.  

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Lab-To-Market
Statement:

Increase the economic impact of Federally-funded research and development by accelerating and improving the transfer of new technologies from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace.

Overview:

The Federal government invests over $130 billion on research and development each year, conducted at universities, Federal laboratories, and companies; this work has yielded extraordinary long-term economic impact through the creation of new knowledge and ultimately new industries.  A wide range of life-changing commercial technologies were nurtured by Federally-funded research and development (R&D), from the Internet, to the global positioning system (GPS), to leading-edge vaccines.  The Federal R&D enterprise will continue to support fundamental research that is motivated primarily by our interest in expanding the frontiers of human knowledge and to diffuse this knowledge through open data and publications.  Federally-funded R&D has historically led to dramatic economic growth, and there is significant potential to increase the public’s return on this investment in terms of innovation, job creation, societal impact, competitiveness, and economic prosperity. 

The Administration has undertaken several recent efforts to accelerate R&D commercialization, including the Administration’s Startup America initiative to promote high-growth entrepreneurship, as well as the ongoing implementation of the Presidential Memorandum of October 28, 2011 (Accelerating Technology Transfer and Commercialization of Federal Research in Support of High-Growth Businesses), which directed agencies to establish goals, measure performance, streamline administrative processes, and facilitate local and regional partnerships to facilitate R&D commercialization. 

The following actions will be taken to accelerate and improve the transfer of new technologies from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace:

  • Optimizing the management, discoverability, and ease-of-license of the 100,000+ Federally-funded patents;
  • Increasing the utilization of Federally-funded research facilities by entrepreneurs and innovators;
  • Ensuring that relevant Federal institutions and employees are appropriately incentivized to prioritize R&D commercialization;
  • Identifying steps to develop human capital with experience in technology transfer, including by expanding opportunities for entrepreneurship education; and
  • Maximizing the economic impact of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs

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People and Culture: Deploy a world-class workforce and create a culture of excellence

People And Culture
Statement:

Innovate by unlocking the full potential of the workforce we have today and building the workforce we need for tomorrow.

Overview:

The Federal Government’s workforce is the most critical ingredient to driving the success of its priority initiatives.  We cannot focus on improvement in processes without a complementary focus on the people we rely on to do the work. Though changes to policy or law may ultimately be needed to address workforce and cultural challenges across government, we can and should take actions to maximize the impact of our workforce within the existing environment.  We propose to:

  • Create a Culture of Excellence and Engagement to Enable Higher Performance.  We will foster a culture of excellence by using data-driven approaches to enhance management, performance, and innovation across the current Federal workforce.  Specifically, we will focus on employee engagement (measured by employee views about their leaders, supervisors, and work experience), as multiple evaluations have demonstrated a strong correlation between employee engagement and an organization’s productivity.  Agencies can now get access to this data for over 13,000 work-level units across the country (up from just a few hundred units four years ago).  This level of specificity in data will provide agency managers with actionable information to target areas where improvement is needed most and where there are management best practices that can provide a model for success.

 

  • Build a World-Class Federal Management Team Starting with the Senior Executive Service (SES). To ensure a first-class Federal workforce long-term, we will invest in our civil service leadership by taking administrative actions that result in a broader experience and skill base across the Federal Executive Corps.  This includes addressing the “pain points” in the hiring process and enhancing training and accountability over the terms of their service.

 

  • Enable Agencies to Hire the Best Talent from All Segments of Society.  We will collaborate with Federal stakeholders and labor groups to ensure a balanced strategic approach to improving hiring outcomes. In the short term, we will identify and address the erosion of the original flexibilities of Title 5.  In the long term, we will work closely with labor unions and use demonstration projects and/or legislation and regulatory changes to ensure that our hiring processes attract and retain America’s talent.  We will measure the success of this effort by assessing manager satisfaction with the quality of both applicants and their hires after six months on the job. 

 

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