Review of Federal High-Priority Goals for 2011

Army Corps of Engineers

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration and Regulatory Program: Restore 10,300 acres	No goals or baselines for ways to restore degraded habitat	Clear targeted impact on total restored acreage
Flood Risk Management: Prevent $13M more of damage, protect 295K more people	No clear goals or baselines for construction and training	Clear targeted impact on safety and property risks
Commercial Navigation	No goals or baselines for waterborne transport systems	No targeted impact on commercial navigation
Hydropower Program: Raise peak availability from 88 to 90%	No clear goals or baselines for ways to raise availability	Clear targeted availability impact

Department of Agriculture

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Strong Regional Communities: Invest in 8-10 regions	No investment targets for each community	No targeted welfare impact of investments
Clean, Abundant Water Resources: Implement HIT practices on 3M acres of forest	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted impact on water quality
Food-Secure Afghan Provinces: Secure 3 more	No goals or baselines for ways to secure Afghan provincial food	Clear targeted impact on Afghan food security
Households with Children at Low Food-Security Levels: Reduce by 100,000	No goals or baselines for ways to make families food secure	Clear targeted impact on families with low food security
Genetically Engineered Plant Biotechnology Compliance	No goals or baselines for increasing GE compliance	No targeted impact on GE compliance
Non-Tariff Trade Barriers against US Exports: $2B more in exports by opening 5 markets	No goals for trade barrier cuts in each planned negotiation	Clear targeted impact on food exports
School Food Quality	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve food quality	No targeted improvement in food quality
Food “Desert” Elimination: Invest in 6 food deserts	Number but not level of investments specified	No targeted impact on healthy food availability
Salmonella Incidence: 50,000 fewer illnesses	No goals or baselines for FSIS regulation	Clear impact on salmonella incidence

Department of Commerce

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
2010 Census: Reach milestones for completion at 0.5% error rate	Critical goals and baselines contained in separate census milestones	Clear targeted impact in the completed census
Intellectual Property Protection: Cut pendency from 2009 levels	No goals or baselines for ways to reduce patent pendency	No targeted reduction in 2009 patent pendency
Coastal and Ocean Resource Management: Raise Fish Stock Sustainability Index 4% by requiring catch limits in all 46 Federal fishery plans	Clear goals and baselines for catch limits	Clear targeted impact on stock overfishing
Broadband Access: Implement Broadband Technology Opportunities Program	Content of Broadband Program not obvious	No targeted impact on access
Export Opportunities: Increase assisted SMEs by 40%	No goals or baselines for raising SME access to assistance	Clear targeted impact on SME exporters
Sustainable Manufacturing and Building Practices: Raise firms adopting sustainable practices by 250 and green-certified projects to 12% of construction	Clear goal for LEED certification but not for ways to increase sustainable manufacturing	Clear targeted impact on sustainable manufacturing but not building energy efficiency

Department of Defense

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Energy Efficiency: Cut building energy intensity by 18%, raise renewable energy to 10% of usage	No goals or baselines for ways to increase energy efficiency	Clear targeted impacts on energy efficiency
Security Clearance Process: Adjudicate 90% of cases in 20 days by digitizing 90% of investigations	Clear goal for electronic clearance investigations	Clear targeted impact on security clearance time
Electronic Record System: Implement VLER online system at 3 sites	Clear goal and baseline for system implementation	No targeted impact from system on health and benefits access
Hiring Process: Cut hiring time to 80 days	No goals or baselines for ways to speed hiring time	Clear targeted impact
Overseas Contingency Operations Support: Raise Contracting Officer assignment rate to 85%, cut in-theater disbursements to 2%, raise record system disbursements to 95% of contract actions	Clear goals and baselines	No targeted impact on in-theater resources spent on logistics
Audit Readiness: Review 80% of appropriations received, 14% of budget resources, 9% of treasury funds, and 20% of mission-critical assets	Clear goals and baselines	No targeted impact on defense readiness
Acquisition Process Reform: Cut major weapons program time to 72 months with no rise in cost overruns through a 1% rise in competitive awards, 10,025 more acquisitions staff, and increases in level II and III personnel	Clear goals and baselines for ways to cut acquisition time	Clear targeted impact on acquisition program cycle times
Security Cooperation Workforce: Raise staff trained in security cooperation to 95% of incumbents in positions requiring it	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted impact on level of cooperation

Department of Education

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Evidence-Based Policy: Evaluate 2/3 more discretionary, all high-priority, and all new programs	Clear goals and baselines	No targeted performance impact of increased evaluation
Schools Reform: Identify 500 model turnaround schools	Clear goal and baseline for identifying model reforms	No targeted impact of models on reform in other schools
World-Class Teaching: Hire 200,000 more teachers for hard-to-staff subjects and schools by ensuring all states implement teacher evaluation systems	Clear goal and baseline to increase teacher evaluation	Clear targeted impact of teacher effectiveness evaluation on hard-to-staff hiring
Data-Driven Decisions: Implement longitudinal student achievement and teacher data systems in all states	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted impact on teaching effectiveness from new systems
College- and Career-Ready Standards: International college- and career-ready benchmarks adopted in all states	Clear goal and baselines for standards adoption	No student readiness target from standards adoption
Student Aid Simplification: All institutions and servicers ready to support Federal Direct Student Loans	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted impact on student loan access of simplified system

Department of Energy

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Cost-Effective Energy Retrofits: 1M retrofits	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted impact of retrofits on energy consumption
Legacy Waste Footprint: Reduce footprint by 40%	No goals or baselines for ways to reduce nuclear waste footprint	Clear targeted impact
Renewable Energy Generation: Double it	No goals or baselines for ways to double renewable energy	Clear targeted impact
Advanced Battery Manufacturing: Support 500,000 plug-in hybrids by 2015	No goals or baselines for ways to advance battery manufacturing	Clear targeted impact
Nuclear Loans: Guarantee 2 nuclear facility loans to add 3,800 MW of low-carbon capacity	Clear goal and baseline for underwriting new nuclear loans	Clear targeted impact on low-carbon power
Nuclear Material Security: Dispose of 3,297 kg of nuclear material and secure total of 218 buildings	Clear goal and baseline for material protection and control	Targeted impact in relation to full scope of nuclear security problem not clear
Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Maintenance: Implement Nuclear Posture Review	Goals and baselines specified elsewhere	Targeted impact clarified in Nuclear Posture Review

Department of Health and Human Services

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Early Care and Education for Low-Income Children: Increase Head Start by 61,000 and CCDF enrollees by 120,000	Clear goal and baseline	No Head Start or CCDF enrolment impact estimates
Early Care and Education Quality: Strengthen quality through improved standards	No clear goals for ways to improve quality	No targeted quality improvement
Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance: Increase CHIP enrollment by 9% and Medicaid by 11%	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted health impact from increased health insurance
Food Safety: Cut salmonella by 10%	No goals or baselines for ways to reduce salmonella incidence	Clear impact target
Tobacco Policy: Raise portion of smoke-free CPPW-funded communities to 75%	No clear goal or baseline for ways to get CPPW-funded communities to pass smoke-free policies	Clear targeted impact on CPPW-funded smoke-free communities
National Health Service Field Strength: Increase NHS Corps to 10,500 providers	Clear goal and baseline	No primary health care access improvement estimates
Emergency Preparedness: Increase to 70% of state health agencies those ready to convene decision-ready staff in 60 minutes	No goals or baselines for ways to cut agency response times	Clear targeted impact
Health Information Technology: Establish nationwide network of Regional Extension Centers, register 100,000 providers to receive services from them, and achieve 40% adoption rate among registered providers	Clear goals and baselines for propagating health information services	No estimate of total need for or value of health information services
Genome Sequencing Cost Reduction: Cut human sequencing cost to $25,000	No goals for ways to cut sequencing costs	Clear impact

Department of Homeland Security

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Aviation Security: Improve it with security officers and technology	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve air security	No targeted improvement in level of aviation security
Surface Transportation: Make it safer through risk assessments and mitigation with skilled response teams	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve surface security	No targeted improvement in level of transportation security
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative: Secure it with travel documents and integrated vehicle and passenger data	No clear goals or baselines for ways to cut border crossings	No targeted reduction in unauthorized land crossings
Detention and Removal: Improve its efficiency	No clear goals or baselines for ways to streamline removal	No targeted improvement in security from detaining illegals
USCIS Business Transformation: Improve services delivery	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve service	No targeted improvement in service levels
Disaster Preparedness and Responsiveness: Strengthen it by improving FEMA operations	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve readiness	No targeted improvement in disaster preparedness
Information Sharing	No clear goals or baselines for what information to share	No targeted improvement in security from sharing info
Acquisition Capability: Instill acquisitions expertise in major program and oversight staff	Vague goal for up-skilling to improve acquisition	No targeted improvement in security from better acquisition

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Foreclosure Prevention: Assist 3.1M homeowners through 3 specified programs and raise the workout ratio for them to 75% while keeping their re-default rate below 20%	Clear goal for programs to assist homeowners but not for ways to raise workout rate	Clear targeted impact on assisted homeowners and workout rate
Rental Assistance: Serve 207K more families than in 2009	No clear goals or baselines for increasing rental assistance	Clear target for increased rental assistance
Veterans’ Homelessness:  Assist 13,250 homeless vets each year to reduce total to 59K	No clear goals or baselines for increasing veteran interventions	Clear target for reducing veteran homelessness
Energy and Green Retrofits: Retrofit 159K housing units	Clear goal and baseline for retrofits to save energy	No targeted improvement in energy efficiency

Department of Justice

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
National Security: Increase top-priority counter-terrorism investigations by 5%	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted interdiction increase from top-priority investigations
White Collar Crime: Increase fraud and corruption cases by 5% with 90% favorable resolutions	No clear goal or baseline for ways to increase favorably resolved prosecutions	Clear targeted impact on favorably resolved prosecutions
Violent Crime: Increase agents and prosecutors by 3% to cut incidence in high-crime areas	Clear goal and baseline for a means of cutting violent crime	Unambitious but clear targeted cut in violent-crime incidence
Immigration: Increase judges by 19% so that 85% of cases completed in 60 days	Clear goal and baseline for a way to resolve immigration cases faster	Clear targeted impact on immigration case resolution time
Public Safety: Support 8,900 more officers to promote fact-based community policing	Clear goal and baseline for promoting community policing	No targeted increase in public safety from community policing
Civil Rights: Increase criminal caseload by 18%, non-criminal caseload by 28%, and mediations by 10%, with 80% favorably resolved	No goals for ways to increase civil rights caseloads	Clear targeted impacts

Department of Labor

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Return-to-Work Program: Cut lost day rates by 1% and illness rates by 4% through an unspecified return-to-work program	Unclear criteria for a return-to-work program	Clear targeted impacts
Worker Protection: Effectiveness measures under development	Goal and baseline needed for wage and hour enforcement efforts	Targeted improvement in worker protection needed
International Labor: Improve rights in 8 developing trading partners	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve rights	No targeted level of labor standards in partner countries
Safety and Health: Reduce OSHA fatalities by 2% and mining fatalities by 5%	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve safety	Clear targeted impacts
Worker Job Training: Train 10% more people through selected programs and 120,000 for green jobs	Clear goals and baselines for training	No clear targeted impact of training on skills attainment

Department of State and USAID

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Afghanistan and Pakistan: Implement Stabilization Strategy	Clear goal and baseline	Clear impact
Iraq: Stabilize country	No clear goals or baselines for ways to increase Iraqi stability	No targeted increase in level of Iraqi stability and self-reliance
Global Health: Reduce infant and maternal mortality, avert unintended pregnancies, prevent HIV infections, and eliminate certain tropical diseases in assisted countries	No clear goals or baselines on ways to cut mortality and illness	No targets for improved health in assisted countries
Climate Change: Set up 12 work programs to complete 20 Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS)	No goals or baselines for what makes an LEDS adequate	No targeted emissions reduction for each LEDS
Food Security: 5 countries to launch plans to halve hunger by 2015	No goals or baselines for adequacy of a food security plan	Clear poverty and hunger reduction plan targets
Democracy and Human Rights: Support activists in 14 authoritarian countries and train 120K officials in emerging democracies	No clear goals and baselines for ways to provide support/training	No governance improvement targets from support/training
Nuclear Nonproliferation: Improve controls	No clear goal or baseline for ways to improve controls	No targeted improvement levels in nuclear controls
Civilian Capacity Building: Manage better	No clear management goals or baselines for building capacity	No clear capacity targets

Department of the Interior

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Renewable Energy: Approve 9K MW of renewable capacity on Interior lands	Clear goals and baselines for new capacity approval	No clear targeted impact on new capacity only Interior could facilitate
Water Conservation: Free up 350K acre-feet of water through Title XVI and SMART grants	No clear goals or baselines for level of water recycling and reuse grants	Clear targeted impact on water availability
Safe Indian Communities: Cut violent crime on targeted reservations by 5% through community policing and interagency partnerships	No clear goals or baselines for policing and deployment	Clear targeted impact on crime
Climate Change: Implement adaptation plans for vulnerable resources affecting 50% of country	No clear goals or baselines for adaptation response actions	No targeted impact on climate from response actions
Youth Stewardship: Increase Department conservation youth employment by 50%	Clear goal for youth in conservation mission	No targeted economic or welfare impact

Department of the Treasury

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Financial System Reform: Reform regulations, complete interventions, support mortgage availability, and fix housing finance	No clear goals or baselines for financial and housing reforms	No targeted impact of reforms on financial stability or housing availability
Tax Compliance: Cut tax gap through better enforcement	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve tax compliance	No targeted impact on tax compliance
Paperless Transactions: Increase e-payments by 33% and reach 74.7% e-file rate for taxes	No goals or baselines for ways to increase paperless transactions	Clear impact

Department of Transportation

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Transportation Safety: Cut fatalities to 1.1 per M through driver, road, and technology initiatives	No clear goals or baselines for driver and road initiatives	Clear targeted impact of driver and road initiatives
Runway Risks: Cut runway incursions by 5%	Clear goal and baseline for runway incursions	No targeted impact of runway incursions on accident incidence
Rail Safety: Raise state compliance levels and conduct 3 safety workshops	Vague goal for training and no goal or baseline for compliance	No targeted impact on rail safety from compliance and training
High-Speed Rail: Obligate 100% of available funds to grantees	Clear goal and baseline for grants	No targeted impact on high-speed rail capability from grants

Department of Veterans Affairs

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Veteran Homelessness: Cut homeless veteran population to 59K	No goals or baselines for how to cut veteran homelessness	Clear impact
GI Benefits System Automation: Cut benefits claim completion time to 18 days through new system	Clear goal and implied baseline for new benefits system	Clear targeted impact of new system on claims completion
Paperless Disability Processing: Implement paperless processing to eliminate claims backlog and make all decisions within 125 days	Clear goal and implied baseline for paperless processing system	Clear targeted impact of new system on claims processing
Virtual Lifetime Electronic Records: Pilot VLER in 3 locations and prototype in 2012	Clear goal and implied baseline	No targeted impact of virtual lifetime records on healthcare results and costs
Mental Health Care: Evaluate 96% of patients within 15 days of 1st encounter and regularly screen 97% of eligible patients for PTSD, 97% for alcohol abuse, and 96% for depression	Clear goals and baselines for ways to improve mental health results through screening	Unspecified targeted impact of screening on mental health results
Veterans Relationship Management Program: Enhance access to benefits by improving call centers, websites, data, and identity verification	Clear goals and baselines for improving access to services	No targeted impact on measures of service levels

Environmental Protection Agency

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting: Publicize 100% of emissions data on industrial facilities	Clear disclosure goal	No targeted impact of disclosure on emissions
Truck Emissions: Start implementing unspecified regulations	No clear goal or baseline for truck emissions	No estimate of impact on air quality of lower truck emissions
Chesapeake Bay: Watershed states to submit plans to meet daily load (TMDL) goal	No goals or baselines for ways to extract plans from states	Clear targeted impact on TMDL
Clean Water: Increase enforcement actions	No goal or baseline for better enforcement	No estimate of impact of enforcement on water quality
Drinking Water: Review 4 drinking water standards	Clear goal and implied baseline	No estimate of impact on water quality of revising four standards
Brownfield Planning Pilot: Initiate 20 under-served community projects on brownfield reclamation	Clear goal and baseline	No target for economic or welfare impact of typical brownfield plan

General Services Administration

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Efficient Federal Resource Use: Cut resource consumption	No goals or baselines for ways to husband resources	No savings estimate
Open Government: Increase government transparency through agile technologies and collaborative innovation	No goals or baselines for ways to improve transparency	No estimate of need for or value of greater transparency
Real Estate Solutions Delivery: Optimize real estate portfolio of 3 major agency customers	Clear if unambitious goal for real estate portfolio optimization engagements	No estimate of cost savings from better real estate management

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Air Traffic Technology: Plan field tests of a NASA technology to optimize aircraft arrivals	Clear goal and implied baseline for technology plan	No targeted impact on air traffic efficiency from technology plan
Space-Based Climate Study: Finish transition reviews for 2 orbital projects to study climate	Clear goal and implied baseline for space-based climate study	No targeted climate impact from space-based climate study
Energy and Water Conservation: Cut agency facility and fleet vehicle energy use by 30% and water use by 26%	No goals or baselines for ways to cut agency energy and water use	Clear targeted impact on usage
Space Shuttle: Fly out Shuttle missions and retire fleet	Reference to goals given in shuttle manifest	No targeted public benefits from remaining flights on manifest
International Space Station: Enhance ISS utilization by re-designating it as a national lab	Clear goal and implied baseline	No targeted impact on ISS utilization from re-designation

National Science Foundation

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Workforce Development: Evaluate 6 NSF science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce programs to enhance impact	Clear STEM evaluation goal	No targeted workforce impact of STEM evaluation

Office of Personnel Management

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Hiring Reform: Cut hiring time by 10%, improve manager satisfaction by 8%, and improve applicant satisfaction by 4%	No goals or baselines for ways to speed and improve hiring	Clear time and satisfaction impacts
Telework: Increase it	No goals or baselines for increased telecommuting	No targeted economic impact from greater telecommuting
Security Clearances: Comply with security clearance goals of IRTP Act of 2004	Goals and  baselines for clearance reforms adopted from legislation	No targeted impact of reforms on secure government hiring
Retirement Claims Processing: Increase valid retirement records to 72% of claims	No clear goals or baselines for ways to improve record accuracy	Clear targeted impact on retirement record accuracy
Wellness: Agency wellness programs to achieve 75% 5-year cumulative participation rate	Clear wellness program attendance goal	No targeted impact on wellness from a well-attended program

Small Business Administration

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Active Lending: Increase small business 7(a) lending partners by 15%	Clear goal and baseline	No targeted economic impact of additional lending partners
Small Business Contracting: Help agencies hit 23% statutory small business contracting goal	No clear goals or baselines for ways to increase SME contracts	Clear statutory targeted impact
Disaster Assistance: Process 85% of disaster loan applications in 14 days for private homes and in 18 days for businesses	No goals or baselines for ways to speed assistance applications	Clear targeted impact
Small Business Innovation Research Metrics: Deploy performance metrics, monitor for waste, and improve commercialization	Clear performance measurement and monitoring goal to enhance small business innovation	No targeted impact on commercialization or innovation quality

Social Security Administration

Priority	Goal and baseline	Impact on mission
Online Applications: 50% of retirement applications, 44% of retirement claims, and 27% of disability claims to be filed online	No clear goals or baselines on ways to increase online filing	Clear targeted impact
Disability Decisions: Ensure severely disabled applicants receive initial decisions in 20 days and cut average final decision time to 270 days by completing 3.3M of 4.3M disability claims, handling 5% of cases as quick or compassionate determinations, and completing 800K of 1.45M hearing requests in 2011	Clear goals and baselines for ways to cut decision time	Clear targeted impact on decision time
Service Quality: Answer 800 calls in 264 seconds and lower busy rate to 7% to raise calls rated at least good to 83.5%	Clear goals and some baselines for ways to improve service	Clear targeted impact of service goals on satisfaction rate
Program Integrity: Increase continuing disability reviews by 9.4% and complete 2.4M SSI non-disability redeterminations	Goals and some baselines for reviews and redeterminations	No targeted impact on fraud reduction from reviews and redeterminations