OMB is well positioned to make government operations more efficient but could better support the agencies that do that work, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service.
“OMB is a tiny agency with fewer than 500 employees and a budget of less than $100 million, but it has gigantic responsibilities. When it succeeds, that success can ripple across the entire government. When it struggles, the negative consequences can be enormous,” it says.
OMB should be the focal point for innovation and for cooperation among agencies and among different levels of government on cross-cutting issues, should drive the use of information and evidence across government to support decision-making, and should help agencies connect spending plans to the capacity to get results, it says.
One issue for the new administration to address, it says, is that “OMB sometimes focuses on issuing orders, policy pronouncements and directives rather than on implementation . . . OMB surely cannot—and should not—itself do the hard work of implementing the president’s policies. However, OMB can pursue several strategies to help agencies, including having a full understanding of what it will take to get the job done.”
Also, OMB currently “is rewarded for challenging agency proposals and operations. Its historical mission has been to protect the president from ideas that do not fit administration priorities and spending that would bust the budget. However, that too often has made OMB into what some refer to as the “agency of no” instead of an engine to drive the government toward success,” it says.
