Government Reform
White Papers and Reports
- A Pragmatic Approach to Stimulus Oversight
Because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides a proportionally modest budget for program management, it must be managed effectively to meet the required standards of accountability and transparency. This paper provides a high-level framework for ARRA oversight activities that can be implemented immediately to help ensure accountability and responsibility in program execution.
- Aligning Environmental, Tax, and Workforce Development Policies to Create a New Green-Collar Workforce
President Obama has outlined an aggressive national agenda to reduce carbon emissions, increase the production of renewable sources of energy, improve energy efficiency, and expand "green-collar" employment opportunities in poor, disadvantaged, and disconnected communities. Achieving this bold vision is an immensely complex undertaking requiring the coordination of a wide-range of policies across federal agencies. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial analysis of the key questions facing policy makers in Congress and the Administration as those charged with implementation seek to align diverse agencies and policies with the "green-collar" workforce vision.
- Avoiding "Pain for Performance": How to Design and Implement an Effective Pay-For-Performance System
Building a pay-for-performance system is an evolutionary process that must begin with the basics. While ideally all five of the primary elements—culture and leadership, resources, policies and procedures, performance objectives, and evaluation plans—should be addressed before a pay-for-performance system is instituted, in reality, most agencies are not afforded the time. In this white paper, ICF provides a platform to raise awareness that the focus should remain on performance, thereby providing lasting results for the organizations.
- Building State Capacity for Effective Management of Stimulus Funding: Abstract for a Proposal to the Governor’s Office
With the Obama Administration’s stimulus funding now law, states are poised to receive billions of dollars for investments in housing, infrastructure, energy efficiency, health care, and other priorities, with job creation a corollary benefit. But states are also on the spot to show they are using the money wisely, which could leverage future funding. ICF International is in a unique position to help states meet these challenges, with longtime experience in creating and managing human services programs at all levels of government.
- Conducting a Business Process Review of White House Compensation Practices
With transparency and the economy top priorities of the Obama Administration, ICF International recommends conducting a comprehensive business process review of the White House compensation practices. This review would ensure compensation is equitable across staff by job requirements and help to identify cost-efficient employment practices. A business process review also would highlight disparities between public service jobs in the White House and similar jobs in other governments and private sector. This white paper details the need for such a review and ICF’s business review process, including internal and external reviews, design of the new business process, and methods for effectively communicating findings.
- Developing a Tool to Aid in Selection of
Public Improvement Projects
With many historical questions waiting to be answered, the decision-making process must be effective and overcome its usual obstacles, including multiple important factors, ineffective communication, and the influence of special interest groups. This white paper recommends developing a decision-making tool and process based on the multi-attribute utility theory that will assist decision makers in selecting projects with the greatest utility.
- Economic Stimulus and NEPA Compliance—Streamlining the Environmental Review Process
This paper explores ways that federal and state agencies can act to quickly and efficiently stimulate the economy while simultaneously complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and similar state environmental review laws, sometimes referred to as "Little NEPAs." This paper also summarizes how the NEPA environmental review process can be streamlined within the framework of existing laws and regulations.
- HR Strategies for Turbulent Times
Since the mid-1990s, HR offices across the federal government have tried to streamline HR processes and make the HR function a strategic partner with management. This white paper presents the ICF HAT (Host, Assist, and Transform) approach and ADMIT (Assess, Differentiate, Measure, Investigate, and Transform) service, which help agencies rapidly start new programs and plan to make HR a strategic business partner.
- The Secret to a Robust Telework Program: Just STIR
Government agencies have been promoting telework and alternative work schedules for more than a decade, but data show that only 7.6 percent of Federal employees actually telework. This paper examines the key challenges to telework in the Federal Government, and presents ICF’s best practice-based STIR (Strategize, Transform, Implement, Recalibrate) methodology for agencies to use to design and execute successful programs customized to their unique mission and programmatic needs.
- Strategic Use of Information Technology to Improve Accountability and Service Delivery
Stakeholders across the United States are advocating for more effective government and demanding accountability through the use of performance-based frameworks at the executive and legislative branch agencies. This paper addresses the framework that ICF developed with methods for improving performance management, thereby raising levels of accountability and service delivery through process, data, and technology.
- Transparent Governing:
Applying Information Technology to Improve Public Involvement in Rulemaking
The Obama Administration has promised greater openness and improved transparency in its execution of public business. As the new Administration begins the arduous task of governing, it needs to determine the role information technology (IT) will play in enhancing transparency in the regulatory decision-making process. This paper sets forth a vision for enhanced transparency and explores how IT tools can be used to obtain meaningful information and synthesize public input throughout the rulemaking process.
- Unleashing Innovation
Innovators in the U.S. government often encounter roadblocks to implementing improvements. In alignment with President Obama's vision for change, an opportunity exists to create a virtual group of forward-thinking experts who would replace traditional gatekeepers and reinforce those public servants who often are stopped by the bureaucracy. This white paper describes the challenges innovators face and a concept to encourage change.
- Using Web 2.0 to Enable a More Transparent and Connected Democracy
Because of the Obama Administration’s push for improved transparency and public participation, government agencies have an opportunity to use Web 2.0 channels such as blogs, wikis, video/photo sharing, social networking, podcasts, and RSS feeds to reach the tens of millions of Americans who use these tools. This white paper illustrates how some federal agencies are currently using these tools and makes recommendations to help federal agencies in planning to take full advantage of Web 2.0 technologies.