Congress Getting Into the Performance Game

Last week, the Senate Budget Committee announced [1] the creation of a Senate Budget Committee Task Force on Government Performance, to be led by committee member Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). According to the committee's press release, the task force "will examine the federal government’s management framework and identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and services."

The bipartisan task force includes Warner and Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) along with Republican senators Jim Bunning (KY) and Mike Crapo (ID). Warner hopes the task force will "take on the difficult challenge of making our government agencies and programs perform better through better measurements, enhanced transparency and greater accountability."

The first hearing of the task force is scheduled for this Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, at 10:00 am. I'm assuming the hearing will be in Dirksen 608 (the regular Budget Committee hearing room), although I can't find any notice of the hearing beyond press statements from the Budget Committee and Senator Warner. Scheduled to testify are Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director for Management and Chief Performance Officer at OMB, Paul Posner, Director of the Master's in Public Administration Program at George Mason University, and Sir Michael Barber, a partner at McKinsey and Co. and the former chief adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on performance issues in Britain.

Image by Flickr user joelrivilin [2] used under a Creative Commons license.