Correspondence of Interest
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
March 3, 1997
The Honorable Dan Glickman
Secretary United States Department of Agriculture
14th & Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Secretary Glickman:
As we begin the Administration's second term, this is the appropriate
time to define what we expect to accomplish during these four
years. To help do this, OMB, over the next several months, will
undertake with you a strategic assessment of your agency's
goals and commitments. I have outlined below the scope of this
assessment, the agency role in it, and the follow through that
will ensue. As the goals and commitments will reflect many of
your main priorities, we look forward to the participation of
you and your senior leadership team over the course of the assessment.
The strategic assessment will cover implementation of the Government
Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and selected management challenges
your department faces, including further pursuit of particular
projects the Vice President and the National Performance Review
have initiated with your agency. For GPRA, the principal focus
will be on preparation of the strategic plans and annual performance
plans that are due this September. This assessment will include
the status of agency preparations and the ways in which the goals
in your plan carry out Presidential priorities.
OMB has identified a range of management challenges across the
government, which encompass longstanding problems, new initiatives,
and governmentwide reforms. Most challenges are agencyspecific,
a few are crosscutting. In the assessment, we will be reviewing
with you your views on what is a measurable level of accomplishment
for each objective over the next four years and your suggestions
on additional or revised management challenges.
The National Performance Review (NPR) initiatives cover the three
main areas in the Blair House Papers: improving customer
service; expanding partnerships with third parties; and continued
reinvention of agencies to help them accomplish their goals with
constrained resources. Specific commitments from your agency for
each area will be sought in the course of the strategic assessment.
Senior NPR and OMB staff will be discussing these areas with you
in the weeks ahead.
An important aspect of this assessment will be to tie together
the goals in your strategic plan, your management challenges,
and the NPR initiatives and commitments with two other recent
activities. Cabinet agency heads provided a statement of their
goals and accomplishments to the President in December. During
February, agencies provided reports to the Chief of Staff on implementing proposals in the State of the Union. In many instances, the goals and actions being taken for one initiative will be an integral
part of another endeavor. We will be working with you to assure
that your goals and commitments present a cohesive and complementary
response to all these initiatives.
For many agencies, this assessment will coincide with the start
of their preparations for the FY 1999 Budget. The basic, underlying
predicate for the strategic assessment is the path to a balanced
budget in FY 2002, and what your agency will be able to accomplish
as we follow this path as defined by the funding levels for fiscal
years 19982002 as set out in the President's FY 1998 Budget.
OMB's Program Associate Director for your agency will soon be
contacting you and your staff to provide more specific details
on the timing and structure of this assessment. They will also
be providing a list of those management challenges that apply
to your agency. I have asked them to work closely with your senior
leadership team to arrive at a good, mutually forged understanding
of the goals and commitments that your agency will pursue over
these next four years. These goals and commitments should be realistically framed, but also challenging. They should be the hallmark of what your agency will achieve during this second term.
At the completion of our assessment, which may include further
communication or meetings between us, a summary of the major goals
and commitments to be achieved governmentwide will be provided
to the Chief of Staff and other appropriate White House of offices.
We look forward to discussing with you these goals and commitments
and your plans for achieving them.
Sincerely,
(original signed by)
Franklin Raines
cc: The Vice President
The Chief of Staff
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