It is often unclear how to apply the Government Performance
and Results Act to areas where federal and state governments
overlap such as the environment, transportation and education,
says Shelley H. Metzenbaum, a visiting professor at the
Maryland School of Public Affairs and author of a report
looking at how certain federal agencies manage for results
in “multiplayer” environments.
“Strategies for Using State Information: Measuring and
Improving Program Performance,” asks how federal agencies
can set goals, measures and performance targets — and be
held accountable by Congress for meeting them — in policy
areas where the federal government is just one of many
players.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s solution is the National
Environmental Performance Partnership System which overlays a
dozen federal laws. Under the NEPPS performance is assessed
not according to whether states follow through with certain
activities, but according to agreed upon goals and state
measurement requirements.
That means performance is based on actual environmental
measurements rather than deciding whether states carried out
certain activities — and EPA encourages state leaders to do
that in their own program management arenas. EPA and states
now agree on setting measures for state performance and a
legislative change allows states to combine federal funds
for meeting state problems.
The system is not perfect, says Metzenbaum, pointing out that
EPA and states need to sort out how to organize and analyze
state performance information so that it is more useful all
around, and in such a way that state leaders fully commit to
the NEPPS framework.
