Comments on White House’s 6/2018 proposal for gov’t reorganization (“Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century”)

During the week of June 19, the White House released its proposal for government reorganization, called “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century.”  You can read it here:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Government-Reform-and-Reorg-Plan.pdf

It is written in the sort of soporific prose that guarantees that almost no one will read it.  So I read it.  Below I will
a. give a translation into English of their list of initiatives.
b.repeat the list, re-ordered to distinguish between things that just reshuffle, things that
eliminate programs and things that create new programs
c. repeat the re-ordered list with some commentary

General Comments:
We all knew that with a Republican Congress and President, some sort of effort would be made to reduce the size of the Federal government. The document lists 32 different initiatives. Given what we know about past Republican efforts to reduce Big Gov’t and given the rhetoric of the current administration, I actually found the list to be surprisingly lacking in changes that were likely to result in much significant reduction. More alarming are the measures that do not reduce the size of government but only reduce the benefits that government is intended to provide. Most alarming are the measures that politicize areas of civil service that have been specifically designed to serve the people rather than the President.  I would like to call particular attention to Item 11.  This would, as far as I can tell, give the President direct authority to hire and fire civil servants.

Each measure that involves reorganization or funding has to be approved by Congress. The document is a wish list, and what has always happened before is that each item turns out to have lobbyists with Republican friends who make sure very little is cut. (This is already happening, for example, with respect to the proposal to privatize the TVA) At any rate, the main purpose of this document seems to be to have something to wave around as evidence that they have cut the government bigly. After having read it, I’m much more worried about cuts to Medicare and Social Security than I am about most of what they’re proposing here. The truly alarming provisions are the ones that consolidate power and politicize the cabinet agencies. Those are numbers 2, 11, 13 and 22. More on this in the commentary.

Please note that I am not doing this in any official capacity, and the language of this document is so opaque that I could be wrong about the way I’m interpreting some of them.  Certainly the administration will insist that it’s all just efficiency measures, nothing to see here.  It is urgent that Democrats in Congress become familiar with at least part of this document.

The summary was divided into three parts, “Mission Alignment Imperatives,” “Management Improvement and Efficiency Opportunities” and “Transformation Urgency.” I’ve tried to provide rough translations of these headings below.

A. My translation of their summary list:
I. MISSION ALIGNMENT IMPERATIVES (=Reshuffling programs in the hope that someone will forget to fund some of them.)

1. Merge the Dept. of Education with the Dept. of Labor
2. Change the name of HHS to “Department of Health and Public Welfare,” and move food stamps etc. from USDA into there.
3. Move the Civil Works part of the Army Corps of Engineers into the Depts. of Transportation and Interior.
4. Remove food safety from mission of FDA. Put all such functions under USDA.
5. Eliminate USDA’s rural housing programs. Put these functions into HUD.
6. Merge the Marine Fisheries Service with the Fish and Wildlife Service. That is, merge the agency that regulates commercial fishing with the agency that protects fisheries.
7. Remove authority for regulation of hazardous materials from DOI and USDA, and put all such responsibilities under EPA’s Superfund program.
8. Reduce foreign aid. (“optimize” State Dept and USAID programs)
9. Create new “Development Finance Institution” (i.e., privatize foreign aid)
10. “Transform USAID”
11. Move the “policy function” of the Office of personnel Management into the Executive Office of the President and “elevate its core strategic mission.”
12. Transfer responsibility for Vet’s cemeteries from DOD to Dept. of Vets. Affairs
13 Reorganize the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
14. Create Office of Energy Innovation, consolidating DOE’s applied energy programs
15. Privatize the TVA, USPS, Air Traffic Control, other parts of the DOT
16. Eliminate various kinds of support for helping middle and working class people afford housing. (“Transform….housing finance system.”)
17. Create a Bureau of Economic Growth in Dept. of Commerce (more privatizing)
18. Reduce US Public Health Service

II. MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT AND EFFICIENCY OPPORTUNITIES (=Privatizing)
19. Outsource some of the functions of NASA to “Federally Funded Research and Development Centers.”
20. Put all graduate fellowships under NSF. I’m going to guess that the goal here is to eliminate fellowships for students in Humanities and Social Sciences.
21. Sell some Federal real estate.
22. Consolidate and streamline financial education and literacy programs (to be consolidated under Mnuchin’s Treasury Department)
23. Strengthen the Small Business Administration

24. Put security for all federal agencies under US Marshals’ Service with support from US Secret Service.
25. More USAID reduction. (Consolidate the small grants functions from the Inter-American Foundation and U.S. African Development Foundation into USAID)
26. Electronic recordkeeping. And, “end the National Archives and Records Administration’s acceptance of paper records by December 31, 2022.
III. TRANSFORMATION URGENCY – NEW CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS (=Something something cyber computer Nextgen something)
27. Create a “Government wide customer experience improvement capability” Because interacting with private companies like Comcast and GIC insurance is so very seamless.
28. “Next Gen” Financial Services Environment for federal student financial aid.
29 Solve the Federal cybersecurity workforce shortage.
30_Establish a “Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center” as a public-private partnership
31. Have DOD do all background checks for federal employees, rather than Office of Personnel Management.
32. More agency evaluations, more often.

B. The list, divided into reshuffle, eliminate and create:

Reshuffle:
1. Merge the Dept. of Education with the Dept. of Labor
2. Change the name of HHS to “Department of Health and Public Welfare,” and move food stamps etc. from USDA into there.
3. Move the Civil Works part of the Army Corps of Engineers into the Depts. of Transportation and Interior.
4. Remove food safety from mission of FDA. Put all such functions under USDA.
5. Eliminate USDA’s rural housing programs. Put these functions into HUD.
6. Merge the Marine Fisheries Service with the Fish and Wildlife Service. That is, merge the agency that regulates commercial fishing with the agency that protects fisheries.
7. Remove authority for regulation of hazardous materials from DOI and USDA, and put all such responsibilities under EPA’s Superfund program.
11. Move the “policy function” of the Office of personnel Management into the Executive Office of the President and “elevate its core strategic mission.”
12. Transfer responsibility for Vet’s cemeteries from DOD to Dept. of Vets. Affairs
13 Reorganize the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
22. Consolidate and streamline financial education and literacy programs (to be consolidated under Mnuchin’s Treasury Department)
24. Put security for all federal agencies under US Marshals’ Service with support from US Secret Service.
31. Have DOD do all background checks for federal employees, rather than Office of Personnel Management.

Eliminate: (note how little financial savings this represents!)
(Possibly the Dept. of Education, but reshuffling usually does not have the desired elimination result)
8. Reduce foreign aid. (“optimize” State Dept and USAID programs)
9. Create new “Development Finance Institution” (i.e., privatize foreign aid)
10. “Transform USAID”
15. Privatize the TVA, USPS, Air Traffic Control, other parts of the DOT
16. Eliminate various kinds of support for helping middle and working class people afford housing. (“Transform….housing finance system.”)
18. Reduce US Public Health Service
19. Outsource some of the functions of NASA to “Federally Funded Research and Development Centers.”
20. Put all graduate fellowships under NSF. I’m going to guess that the goal here is to eliminate fellowships for students in Humanities and Social Sciences.
21. Sell some Federal real estate.
25. More USAID reduction. (Consolidate the small grants functions from the Inter-American Foundation and U.S. African Development Foundation into USAID)

Create new bureaucracy:
14. Create Office of Energy Innovation, consolidating DOE’s applied energy programs
17. Create a Bureau of Economic Growth in Dept. of Commerce (more privatizing)
23. Strengthen the Small Business Administration
26. Electronic recordkeeping. And, “end the National Archives and Records Administration’s acceptance of paper records by December 31, 2022. 27. Create a “Government wide customer experience improvement capability”
28. “Next Gen”Financial Services Environment for federal student financial aid.
29 Solve the Federal cybersecurity workforce shortage.
30_Establish a “Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center” as a public-private partnership
32. More agency evaluations, more often.

Commentary:

1. Merge the Dept. of Education with the Dept. of Labor
Well, at least this would put Betsy DeVos out of a job…. The new department would be called “Education and the Workforce.” This sort of reorganization is always touted as decreasing bureaucracy but almost never results in substantive changes to what a given department does. We already know they support charter schools and don’t care about adequate public education. We need to worry about the effect of this merger on programs in the Dept. of Labor: OSHA, Mine Safety and Health, Employees Compensation Appeals Board.

2. Change the name of HHS to “Department of Health and Public Welfare,” and move food stamps etc. from USDA into there.
Surely there’s no reason for the name change except to prime people to want to eliminate the department.

In the detailed discussion, they say that they will create a “Council on Public Assistance.” This is the program to watch. Its mandate seems to be to eliminate public assistance.

3. Move the Civil Works part of the Army Corps of Engineers into the Depts. of Transportation and Interior.

“The Civil Works programs include water resource development activities including flood risk management, navigation, recreation, and infrastructure and environmental stewardship. Our mission also includes emergency response”. (https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/)

4. Remove food safety from mission of FDA. Put all such functions under USDA.
They are taking social welfare programs out of USDA (food stamps) and putting the F part of FDA into USDA.

5. Eliminate USDA’s rural housing programs. Put these functions into HUD.
As I understand it, the rural housing program deals with housing in areas where no developers will invest, that is, sort of “last mile” housing. Rural Trump supporters will be affected by this.

6. Merge the Marine Fisheries Service with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

This merges the agency that regulates commercial fishing with the agency that protects fisheries. What could go wrong?

7. Remove authority for regulation of hazardous materials from DOI and USDA, and put all such responsibilities under EPA’s Superfund program.
One effect of this is to remove people who represent the interests of Native American tribes (i.e. people in DOI) from having any say over programs for hazardous materials.

8. Reduce foreign aid. (“optimize” State Dept and USAID programs)
9. Create new “Development Finance Institution” (i.e., privatize foreign aid)
10. “Transform USAID”

This item is likely to be one of the only ones where they can successfully remove funding since it doesn’t affect any Republican congressperson’s constituents.

11. Move the “policy function” of the Office of personnel Management into the Executive Office of the President and “elevate its core strategic mission.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The Office of Personnel Management is specifically designed to be a-political. To manage the federal workforce in a way that furthers the missions of the various departments and evaluates employees based on objective criteria, preventing hiring and firing for political purposes. From Wikipedia: “The OPM is partially responsible for maintaining the appearance of independence and neutrality in the Administrative Law System. While technically employees of the agencies they work for, Administrative Law Judges (or ALJs) are hired exclusively by the OPM, effectively removing any discretional employment procedures from the other agencies.” This change could give the President enormous direct power over hiring and firing of federal employees.

12. Transfer responsibility for Vet’s cemeteries from DOD to Dept. of Vets. Affairs
Fine.

13 Reorganize the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
These three agencies have entirely different purposes: Establishing demographics for the purposes of voting and resource allocation, analyzing the economy and tracking the workforce. The methods they need to use are also entirely different (house to house surveys vs. analyzing economic indicators vs. compiling data reported by employers.  Dems need to watch this carefully, as we can assume that the purpose is to undermine the census.

14. Create Office of Energy Innovation, consolidating DOE’s applied energy programs
A common tactic: remove funding, create a new “Office.”

15. Privatize the TVA, USPS, Air Traffic Control, other parts of the DOT
The proposal for the TVA has already been pretty much blocked by Republicans from the states that would be affected. Don’t know about the others.

16. Eliminate various kinds of support for helping middle and working class people afford housing. (“Transform….housing finance system.”)

17. Create a Bureau of Economic Growth in Dept. of Commerce (more privatizing)

18. Reduce US Public Health Service

I don’t know much about this, but people interested in Public Health should pay attention.

19. Outsource some of the functions of NASA to “Federally Funded Research and Development Centers.”
I thought NASA already was a research and development center. I guess the purpose of this is to make sure no research center is too permanent.

20. Put all graduate fellowships under NSF. I’m going to guess that the goal here is to eliminate fellowships for students in Humanities and Social Sciences.

21. Sell some Federal real estate.

No details given about what or to whom.

22. Consolidate and streamline financial education and literacy programs (to be consolidated under Mnuchin’s Treasury Department)
The financial education and literacy program in the Treasure department was established under Bush, essentially to create propaganda about how the government needs to balance its budget. I wouldn’t miss this if it were eliminated.  But they won’t eliminate it.

23. Strengthen the Small Business Administration

24. Put security for all federal agencies under US Marshals’ Service with support from US Secret Service.

25. More USAID reduction. (Consolidate the small grants functions from the Inter-American Foundation and U.S. African Development Foundation into USAID)
26. Electronic recordkeeping. And, “end the National Archives and Records Administration’s acceptance of paper records by December 31, 2022.

Clearly some work needs to be done on the government’s electronic records. I hope Dems will pay attention to finding out exactly what they mean by ending paper records. All paper records, of everything?

27. Create a “Government wide customer experience improvement capability”
Being recently retired, I’ve had lots of recent opportunities to interact with customer service at both Medicare and my private insurance company. Medicare customer service was truly excellent. The private insurance company was an utter nightmare. Social Security also has excellent customer service. If anybody thinks life will be better if customer service for the government becomes more like that of Comcast, Bank of America, Microsoft, Verizon or Aetna, they’ve obviously never actually interacted with any of these.

28. “Next Gen” Financial Services Environment for federal student financial aid.
OK, whatever this means. I’m for getting someone who knows about technology to revamp gov’t computer systems. Not clear where they’ll find people to do this. See #29.

29 Solve the Federal cybersecurity workforce shortage.
Can’t wait to see how they do this while also giving so much in tax breaks to billionaires that they can’t afford to pay anyone even half what they can get at Facebook. But at least I do agree that this is a big problem that needs attention.

30_Establish a “Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center” as a public-private partnership
Um, ok. They’ve got the acronym, so that was the hard part, right?

31. Have DOD do all background checks for federal employees, rather than Office of Personnel Management.
Because Muslims might be considering taking a job cleaning bathrooms at the Commerce Department, and this’ll nip that in the bud.

32. More agency evaluations, more often.

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