Wider Reforms Sought, But No Performance Fund

The White House budget does seek any funding for the “human capital performance fund,” which Congress authorized in late 2003 at the administration’s request. In the prior two years, the administration sought $300 million for the fund to be parceled out to top performers across government, but Congress appropriated only $1 million—just enough to set up the fund on paper—in 2004 and denied any funding for 2005, saying that rewards for performance should be handled by each agency within its own budget. Meanwhile, the budget proposal formally calls for expanding to other agencies the alternative personnel authorities being put in place at the Defense and Homeland Security departments—which include, among other things, an emphasis on pay for performance—but does not lay out in detail what it is proposing to do.