Another Hoover-like Commission is needed, but is unlikely

 

Our government struggles to work within an industrial age structure inadequate for the age of globalization, technology, and terrorism. The government looks and acts tired and as worn out as an uncared for 25-year-old automobile, rusted, faded, cracked, and leaky, because the government’s numerous vertical stovepipe agencies are unable to meet today’s challenges, which require cross-agency solutions.

We expect too much of today’s poorly organized government, unreasonably hoping that it can handle today’s issues. Leadership needs to take a “whole of government” view. We need a Government Without Boundaries which work with issues not within silos where protection of the status quo is a major priority. Rather, we need a government that manages its affairs horizontally across agencies, a need so evident in cases such as in Hurricane Katrina, in the underwear bomber case in 2010, and in all cases involving the 16 intelligence organizations.

President Obama in his State of the Union speech to the nation on January 25, 2011 drew a laugh when he commented that the Department of the Interior regulates salmon in fresh water and the Department of Commerce regulates salmon in salt water, and it, “… gets even more complicated once they are smoked,” he said.

While the government has made some progress by using collaboration software such as Microsoft’s SharePoint, unfortunately, substantial change is unlikely to occur for six reasons.

·        The ever-increasing numbers of marginally-qualified White House appointments who are often unable to visualize the big picture.

·        Contracts with the private sector, which prohibit the government from consolidating and reorganizing its programs without financial penalty during the life of the contract.

·        Congress savors its power. To protect the number of its committee chairs, it bars even modest administration attempts to eliminate redundant and duplicative government programs and agencies. When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, gathering 28 agencies into the new Department, members were unwilling to relinquish any authority, and insisted that they retain authority over “their” agencies, before they would allow the White House to proceed with the reorganization.  Consequently, the Department gets its marching orders from more than 100 committees and subcommittees, continuing to fragment the government’s efforts to integrate and respond to the threats of terrorism and other national emergencies. In addition, there are some 51 federal agencies monitoring the flow of money to terrorist organizations.

 

See: Gideon Rachman, “Declare victory, and end the ‘global war on terror,’ ” Financial Times, May 31, 2011, page 13.

·        Powerful special interests, including thousands of non-governmental organizations and the media, work every day to influence the affairs of government.

·        Interest groups employ large sums of money to influence the direction of government, often to keep things as they are.

·        Successive presidents of both parties are disenfranchising the career workforce and their knowledge of the big picture and collaborative possibilities.

 

Before closing on this subject, here is one additional case in case you are still a non-believer. The government has divided the responsibility for egg safety between the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration depending on whether an egg is inside the chicken, or has been laid, and whether the egg is whole or has been cracked open. After earlier outbreaks of the salmonella virus, the Centers for Disease Control entered the picture adding a third federal agency and additional complexity to the problem solving process. Congress, to maintain the number of its powerful committee chair positions, retains these divisions of responsibility despite the health risks they pose to the public and the difficulties they present to the agencies attempting to solve a national health crisis.

The salmonella outbreak in 2010 in 17 states caused nausea, vomiting, and fever, and death in people with weakened immune systems. In this book, I emphasize the need for government agencies to collaborate and consolidate across their boundaries to address today’s problems. Moreover, while the government remains fragmented, the salmonella case reveals that the egg industry has consolidated on a massive scale.

The Wright County Egg company, with its five “farms” in Iowa produces hundreds of millions of eggs, which the company redistributes to 18 distributers in the nation under such heart-warming names as Farm Fresh, James Farms, Pacific Coast, Lucerne, Sunshine, Hillandale, and Dutch Farms. Therefore, if you think your fresh eggs are coming to you from one of these firms with a farm fresh name, think again. They all come from the Wright County Farm in Iowa, a massive example of consolidation.

Fernando, with this brief history, you can see that the federal government faced up to organizational problems in the past, particularly after WW II, and it needs to do so again because of the rampant duplication and overlap between agencies. While reorganizations are often difficult, and some use them to create the illusion of progress, there are times to reorganize to reduce confusion, inefficiency, and wasted money. For the federal government, the time is now.

Lets move on to the specific insights to help you once you are on the job