The real crisis in government By Paul C. Light
The systemic failures that led to the attempted bombing of Northwest
Flight 253 are, sadly, all too familiar. Substitute the words
"Christmas Day plot" for tainted meat, poisoned peppers, aircraft
groundings, the Columbia shuttle accident, Hurricane Katrina,
counterfeit Heparin, toxic toys, the banking collapse, Bernie Madoff
or even Sept. 11, and the failure to put Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on
the "no-fly" list becomes yet another indication that the federal
government can no longer guarantee the faithful execution of our laws.
There have been many studies of this issue over the years, including a
long list from the Partnership for Public Service. But none are more
important than two reports of the National Commission on the Public
Service (which, full disclosure, I helped write). Chaired by former
Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul A. Volcker, the 1988 commission
involved a "who's who" of public servants, including Gerald Ford,
Walter Mondale, Vernon Jordan, Donna Shalala, Doug Fraser, John
Gardner, Charles "Mac" Mathias, Ed Muskie, John Brademas, Derek Bok
and Elliot Richardson.
The commission's report warned about the "quiet crisis" that had
emerged in government performance. Citing the need for talented
employees at all levels, it highlighted growing problems in attracting
talented Americans to government service and what it called a
"profound erosion in public trust."
Fifteen years later, a second national commission assessed the quiet
crisis, which, by then, was deafening. Instead of focusing on just the
people of government, this panel looked at the widening federal agenda
after the Sept. 11 attacks as well as underlying causes of poor
performance and frequent breakdowns. The final report minced no words:
"There are too many decision-makers, too much central clearance, too
many bases to touch, and too many overseers with conflicting agendas .
. . accountability is hard to discern and harder still to enforce."
The indictment -- sound familiar? -- can be traced to four
bureaucratic problems that plague the federal government.
First, the federal government currently has the most confusing
hierarchy in its history. Barack Obama entered office overseeing at
least 64 discrete titles just at the top of the government. Even one
vacancy in the reporting chain can wreak havoc on performance. With
more layers of management and more managers per layer, information
must travel a great distance before reaching the president, if it ever
does.
Second, a quarter to half of these layers are filled by political
appointees, each of whom must go through an agonizing approval
process. The clearance forms have never been more complex, repetitive
or invasive, and the vetting process never more cumbersome. For its
part, the Senate has never been so obstinate. Even as health-care
legislation is barreling forward, no one is heading the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services. Half of the Treasury Department's
political appointees are still missing, and the director of the
Transportation Security Administration is on hold because of Sen. Jim
DeMint's opposition to any attempt to unionize the agency's workforce.
Obama's government is not so much headless as neck-less.
Third, front-line government employees have expressed serious concerns
about their jobs. Interviewed in mid-2008 by the U.S. Office of
Personnel Management, less than half of a random sample of federal
employees said their agencies were able to recruit employees with the
right skills, just over a third said promotions were based on merit,
and even fewer said their agencies took steps to deal with poor
performers. Most important in explaining the failure of imagination
that appears to have contributed to the Christmas Day incident, just
over half of the federal employees said their managers encouraged
communication across work units, and less than 40 percent said that
innovation and creativity were rewarded in their agencies.
Fourth, the federal government is increasingly dependent on a huge
workforce of employees who operate in the shadows. According to
estimates from Eagle Eye Publishers, prepared on my behalf, the number
of federal contractors grew from an estimated 4.4 million in 1999 to
more than 7.5 million by the end of the 2005 fiscal year. Given the
continued rise in federal procurement spending, the number of
contractors is almost certainly higher today. As the number of large
contracts has increased and competition has declined, it has become
nearly impossible to hold anyone accountable for what goes right or
wrong.
Tinkering will not fix these problems. Congress and the president must
embrace far-reaching reform in what government is asked to do and how
it implements laws. The question is not whether government has an
audacious agenda but whether it can convert great endeavors into
achievement.
One thing is certain. Substantial reform will not happen until
Congress and the president acknowledge that the Christmas Day plot is
symptomatic of a much larger threat. They merely need to read the two
national commission reports to start drafting legislation. Until that
happens, the next failure is only a matter of time.
Paul C. Light is a professor at New York University's Wagner School of
Public Service and the author of "A Government Ill Executed."