[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 16, 2011)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 14273-14274]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-6298]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 76 , No. 51 / Wednesday, March 16, 2011 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 14273]]


                Memorandum of March 11, 2011

                
Government Reform for Competitiveness and 
                Innovation

                Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and 
                Agencies

                As I outlined in my State of the Union address to the 
                Congress on January 25, 2011, winning the future in the 
                global economy will require reducing our deficit while 
                investing in areas critical to long-term economic 
                growth and competitiveness such as education, 
                innovation, and infrastructure. By out-educating, out-
                innovating, and out-building our competitors, we will 
                enable our Nation to grow, create jobs, and thrive in 
                the years ahead.

                At the same time, we cannot win the future with a 
                government built for the past. We live and do business 
                in the information age, but the organization of the 
                Federal Government has not kept pace. Government 
                agencies have grown without overall strategic planning 
                and duplicative programs have sprung up, making it 
                harder for each to reach its goals. Already, my 
                Administration has taken on this waste and duplication. 
                My current budget proposes more than 200 terminations, 
                reductions, and savings in agency programs totaling 
                approximately $30 billion in fiscal year 2012. And in 
                areas as varied as surface transportation to job 
                training, public health, and education, I have proposed 
                to consolidate scores of programs into more focused, 
                effective, and streamlined initiatives.

                But we must go further. Winning the future will take a 
                government that judiciously allocates scarce government 
                resources to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness 
                so that it can best support American competitiveness 
                and innovation. Now is the time to act to consolidate 
                and reorganize the executive branch of the Federal 
                Government in a way that best serves this goal.

                By this memorandum, I assign our Nation's first Chief 
                Performance Officer, who also serves as the Deputy 
                Director for Management of the Office of Management and 
                Budget (the ``Chief Performance Officer''), the 
                responsibility of leading the effort to create a plan 
                for the restructuring and streamlining of the executive 
                branch of the Federal Government. The first focus of 
                this effort shall be on the executive departments and 
                agencies and the functions that support one of our most 
                important priorities--increasing trade, exports, and 
                our overall competitiveness (``trade and 
                competitiveness'').

                Accordingly, I direct the following:

                (1) The Chief Performance Officer shall establish a 
                Government Reform for Competitiveness and Innovation 
                Initiative, led by an Executive Director, to conduct a 
                comprehensive review of the Federal agencies and 
                programs involved in trade and competitiveness, 
                including analyzing their scope and effectiveness, 
                areas of overlap and duplication, unmet needs, and 
                possible cost savings.

                (2) As part of this review, the Chief Performance 
                Officer and Executive Director shall confer broadly 
                with the heads and staff of executive departments and 
                agencies, including the offices and agencies within the 
                Executive Office of the President (collectively, the 
                ``agencies''). They should also consult broadly with 
                external stakeholders, including Members of Congress, 
                business leaders, unions, nongovernmental 
                organizations, and government reform experts, to hear 
                their individual and independent perspectives on what 
                we are doing well and where we could improve our 
                effectiveness and efficiency.

[[Page 14274]]

                (3) Within 90 days from the date of this memorandum, 
                the Chief Performance Officer shall submit 
                recommendations to me for presidential and, ultimately, 
                congressional action to restructure and streamline 
                Federal Government programs focused on trade and 
                competitiveness, based on the following principles:

                    (a) the functions of the executive branch of the 
                Federal Government involved in trade and 
                competitiveness should be organized so that the Federal 
                Government can most efficiently and effectively 
                facilitate the competitiveness of American businesses, 
                large and small, and American workers in the changing 
                global economy;
                    (b) the responsibilities, authorities, programs, 
                and requirements of agencies should be transparent, 
                understandable, and easily accessible to the American 
                public; and
                    (c) agencies and programs should be organized to 
                reduce inefficiencies and overlapping responsibilities 
                or functions, maximize return on taxpayer dollars, and 
                best serve the American public.

                (4) Agencies shall provide, consistent with law, 
                information and assistance requested by the Chief 
                Performance Officer and Executive Director to inform 
                their work as directed by this memorandum.

                (5) Agencies shall carry out the provisions of this 
                memorandum to the extent permitted by law and 
                consistent with their statutory and regulatory 
                authorities and their enforcement mechanisms.

                (6) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.

                (7) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
                is hereby authorized and directed to publish this 
                memorandum in the Federal Register. 
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, March 11, 2011

[FR Doc. 2011-6298
Filed 3-15-11; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3110-01-P