Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation

Memorandum of March 11, 2011

Government Reform for Competitiveness and
Innovation

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and
Agencies

As I outlined in my State of the Union address to the
Congress on January 25, 2011, winning the future in the
global economy will require reducing our deficit while
investing in areas critical to long-term economic
growth and competitiveness such as education,
innovation, and infrastructure. By out-educating, out-
innovating, and out-building our competitors, we will
enable our Nation to grow, create jobs, and thrive in
the years ahead.

At the same time, we cannot win the future with a
government built for the past. We live and do business
in the information age, but the organization of the
Federal Government has not kept pace. Government
agencies have grown without overall strategic planning
and duplicative programs have sprung up, making it
harder for each to reach its goals. Already, my
Administration has taken on this waste and duplication.
My current budget proposes more than 200 terminations,
reductions, and savings in agency programs totaling
approximately $30 billion in fiscal year 2012. And in
areas as varied as surface transportation to job
training, public health, and education, I have proposed
to consolidate scores of programs into more focused,
effective, and streamlined initiatives.

But we must go further. Winning the future will take a
government that judiciously allocates scarce government
resources to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness
so that it can best support American competitiveness
and innovation. Now is the time to act to consolidate
and reorganize the executive branch of the Federal
Government in a way that best serves this goal.

By this memorandum, I assign our Nation's first Chief
Performance Officer, who also serves as the Deputy
Director for Management of the Office of Management and
Budget (the ``Chief Performance Officer''), the
responsibility of leading the effort to create a plan
for the restructuring and streamlining of the executive
branch of the Federal Government. The first focus of
this effort shall be on the executive departments and
agencies and the functions that support one of our most
important priorities--increasing trade, exports, and
our overall competitiveness (``trade and
competitiveness'').

Accordingly, I direct the following:

(1) The Chief Performance Officer shall establish a
Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation
Initiative, led by an Executive Director, to conduct a
comprehensive review of the Federal agencies and
programs involved in trade and competitiveness,
including analyzing their scope and effectiveness,
areas of overlap and duplication, unmet needs, and
possible cost savings.

(2) As part of this review, the Chief Performance
Officer and Executive Director shall confer broadly
with the heads and staff of executive departments and
agencies, including the offices and agencies within the
Executive Office of the President (collectively, the
``agencies''). They should also consult broadly with
external stakeholders, including Members of Congress,
business leaders, unions, nongovernmental
organizations, and government reform experts, to hear
their individual and independent perspectives on what
we are doing well and where we could improve our
effectiveness and efficiency.

(3) Within 90 days from the date of this memorandum,
the Chief Performance Officer shall submit
recommendations to me for presidential and, ultimately,
congressional action to restructure and streamline
Federal Government programs focused on trade and
competitiveness, based on the following principles:

(a) the functions of the executive branch of the
Federal Government involved in trade and
competitiveness should be organized so that the Federal
Government can most efficiently and effectively
facilitate the competitiveness of American businesses,
large and small, and American workers in the changing
global economy;
(b) the responsibilities, authorities, programs,
and requirements of agencies should be transparent,
understandable, and easily accessible to the American
public; and
(c) agencies and programs should be organized to
reduce inefficiencies and overlapping responsibilities
or functions, maximize return on taxpayer dollars, and
best serve the American public.

(4) Agencies shall provide, consistent with law,
information and assistance requested by the Chief
Performance Officer and Executive Director to inform
their work as directed by this memorandum.

(5) Agencies shall carry out the provisions of this
memorandum to the extent permitted by law and
consistent with their statutory and regulatory
authorities and their enforcement mechanisms.

(6) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

(7) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget
is hereby authorized and directed to publish this
memorandum in the Federal Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, March 11, 2011