Jack Lew should take a cue from the Nixon era

We recently unearthed the memo, which Nixon advisor
Fred Malek drafted for George P. Shultz, then-director of the newly formed OMB.
It was an attempt by the 33-year-old future president of Marriott Hotels and
Northwest Airlines to outline some of the principal management challenges the
agency would have to address in its inaugural years.

“The fundamental problems described [in the memo]
would appear to be soluble, but over a long period of time and not all at
once,” wrote Malek. Four decades is probably longer than Malek
anticipated. And he probably would have been appalled if he had known that
OMB’s challenges would remain largely unchanged well into the 21st century.

Malek made trenchant points that remain sadly true
today: The federal government consistently places individuals with little
management experience in key management roles, and they develop policies
without regard for whether they are actually workable when implemented. Agency
leaders devote their energies to putting out politically charged fires, leaving
less visible programs without strong managerial guidance. The government
struggles to effectively monitor program performance and measure real-world
outcomes. Agencies operate in semi-independent silos with separate missions and
budgetary obligations defined by Congress. And ineffective partnerships with
state and local governments impede program implementation.

Malek’s insights are far from groundbreaking. Indeed,
the document’s power today is not its freshness, but its disheartening
endurance. 

Schultz worked hard during the early years of the
Nixon presidency to address these problems. He helped establish the short-lived
Office of Executive Management to oversee essential management functions and
develop a leaner organizational structure for the executive branch. Several
presidents have tried similar commendable efforts since, including Bill
Clinton’s “reinventing government” campaign to improve efficiency and
effectiveness through a six-month “National Performance Review” of
every cabinet department and 10 agencies.

President Obama has also accomplished much in this
area over the last 18 months, such as introducing a new set of high priority
performance goals for government departments. But more needs to be done. 

It is regrettable that Fred Malek tarnished his legacy
by being the loyal Nixon servant who carried out a presidential order to demote
four government officials with Jewish-sounding surnames. Still, Malek’s vision
for the nascent OMB can guide Jack Lew as he takes the reins in the Eisenhower
Building. It is a vision that has never been truly realized but is today
tantalizingly within reach: “The entire organization should be attuned to
a hard-nosed, results-oriented approach from the beginning.”

Jitinder Kohli is a Senior Fellow and John Griffith is
a Research Associate with the Doing What Works project, both at the Center for
American Progress.