Jeff Zients, Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget and Federal Chief Performance Officer, said at the heart of his reorganization of government is finding ways to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses by selling goods and services overseas.
The determination was backed by a report by the Council of Inspectors General of Integrity and Efficiency that underscored the need for the government to better support the nation’s competitiveness in a modern global economy.
“So we’ve been talking to business owners – large, small, and everywhere in between to get their feedback,” Zients wrote in a post on the White House blog. “Earlier [last] week, I met with several business owners in Fredericksburg, VA, who shared with me their challenges as they look to grow their companies. With a dozen different agencies to choose from, it’s not surprising to learn that many businesses, particularly those trying to break into the export market for the first time, are confused about where to go for assistance. So we’ve been asking them, how can we do it better?”
Zients added he’s also reached out to government employees through WhiteHouse.gov/governmentvoices to find redundancies in government. Nearly 6,700 federal workers participated, submitting more than 5,000 ideas and casting 90,000 votes for others’ ideas. Submissions ranged from innovative ways to inform small businesses of export promoting services to large-scale reforms that would change the mission of some government agencies, Zients said.
“We have no illusions about how difficult any reorganization will be, but we also know that we are at a critical moment and failing to act simply isn’t an option,” Zients said. “At any time, it’s imperative that the government be efficient and effective, but particularly in these tough fiscal times, we cannot allow taxpayer dollars to be wasted on overlap or systems that are not as effective as they could be.”
