The Department of Transportation (DOT) is committed to the President’s goals of a citizen-centered, results-based, market-oriented government. Transportation is a key element in the production of goods and services in the United States; it helps maintain our standard of living and supports our Nation’s defense. Everything we do at DOT is aimed at making measurable improvements in our transportation system, the security of our Nation, and the quality of American life. In this Plan, we outline how DOT will bring the Department’s energy and resources to bear on improving the Nation’s transportation system, and focus more sharply on the connection between resources and results in implementing the President’s Management Agenda.

We will succeed only when we understand historical trends, study recent results, and use this understanding to form the basis for our strategies and resource decisions. This Performance Plan ensures our clear focus both on outcomes sought, and organizational and individual accountability for them. DOT’s management framework is as follows:

• The DOT Strategic Planprovides a comprehensive vision for advancing the Nation’s complex and vital transportation system into the future. For the next several years, it puts forth broad objectives; targets specific performance outcomes we want to achieve, and identifies key challenges.

• The DOT Performance Plan operationalizes the DOT Strategic Plan, and provides strong linkages to DOT’s budget request. The Performance Plan defines high-level performance outcome goals, quantifiable measures, and specific performance targets for FY 2004 that will be used to manage the Department and make progress toward our strategic objectives. It provides the ‘connective tissue’ linking each of the 10 operating administrations’ budget documents, which taken together, describe in detail one fiscal year’s effort within DOT.

• The DOT Performance Report, published separately, provides a public accounting of performance against the goals in the FY 2002 plan. This performance baseline provides the ‘launch pad’ for improvements in results contained in this Performance Plan.

• The operating administrations’ and the Office of the Secretary’s budgets, which describe the nexus between resources that fuel program activities, program outputs, and performance outcomes resulting from the effects created by program outputs.

• Accountability agreements, for DOT organizations, executives, and employees tie the philosophy of managing for performance into the Department’s culture and daily practices.

  This graphic describes how DOT will move from planning, measuring, and reporting on performance, to managing performance: