Latest from the White House (January 13)

In December, the White House released the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). Administrations have been issuing PMAs since the George W. Bush presidency in 2001. The agendas represent the President’s strategy for improving the management and performance of the federal government by identifying specific goals and metrics. Its signature feature has been a scorecard that tracks progress by each federal agency across several measures, such as human capital or budget performance.

Each Administration puts their own spin on the PMA; however, they have traditionally built off their predecessor’s agendas to ensure continuity in government improvement. However, the Trump Administration’s PMA released last month reads less like a plan for improving government efficiency and more like an extension of the President’s domestic policy agenda. For example, the three PMA priorities are:

• Shrink the government and eliminate waste
• Ensure accountability for Americans
• Deliver results, buy American

However, within each are specific goals, such as “eliminate woke and weaponized programs across government” and “defund DEI gender ideology, K-12 indoctrination, child mutilation, and open borders.” This is a different approach from PMA’s of past Administrations which focused on reforming federal agency structures to be more efficient, taking advantage of new technology, and reforms to the civil service (see President Bush’s 2001 PMA)

The PMA can be found on Performance.gov. However, the website currently contains only an outline of Trump’s management agenda. Missing are details about which agencies will be tasked with delivering on the stated goals and how they will be measured.