The Obama administration today announced new two-year agency priority goals and longer-term cross-agency priority goals. In addition, the administration also released agency strategic plans, outlining guidelines for improving performance in the coming years.
The White House will track its progress on a quarterly basis on performance.gov, as it has done since 2009.
“The new goals were selected based on their importance in accelerating economic growth, expanding opportunity, and ensuring the nation’s long-term fiscal strength,” said Beth Cobert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget.
OMB provided as few examples of the newest goals and priorities:
- A new CAP goal will be established to spur job growth by encouraging more foreign direct investment in the U.S. Over the last 10 years, U.S. affiliates of foreign companies employed more than 5 million workers, mainly in high-paying manufacturing jobs, which, on average, pay up to 30 percent more than non-FDI jobs. The National Economic Council, together with the Commerce Department and the State Department, will take the lead in this effort. They will be responsible for improving coordination across the government and enhancing federal investment tools and resources.
- A new CAP goal led by the General Services Administration and OMB is focused on increasing government efficiency by establishing cost and quality benchmarks in areas such as human resources, acquisition, IT and property management. These new benchmarks will give agencies better data so they can make more informed choices about allocating resources and improving processes.
- The Department of Veteran Affairs, in partnership with the Housing and Urban Development Department, is setting a joint APG of eliminating veterans’ homelessness by the end of FY 2015.
Goal teams are expected to release detailed implementation plans with specific milestones and metrics. According to Cobert, 2014 is the first year all agencies revised their strategic plans at the same time, which allows for better interagency coordination.
