The President’s call in his State of the Union address for strategic and targeted investments and cuts to address the growing deficit and debt is welcomed, but, by his own admission, mere budgetary tweaking won’t avoid the type of crises now facing our allies abroad from taking hold here at home.
In fact, arbitrarily freezing program spending, federal employee salaries and hiring may cause greater problems by understaffing and under-resourcing the very agencies charged with addressing our nation’s many challenges. As such, agencies need to thaw their frozen communications with their private sector partners and take a more collaborative approach to implementing the President’s domestic discretionary spending freeze.
PSC President and CEO Stan Soloway outlined how an approach driven by open communication and collaboration across sectors could work in his latest Washington Technology column and in a statement after the State of the Union.
In the statement, Soloway said:
“Clearly, austerity will be felt across all sectors of the government, including federal employees, contractors and grantees, principally through a five-year freeze on domestic, discretionary spending. Although traditional means of balancing the budget alone will not be enough to fully compensate for our current deficit and debt dynamics, these measures are clearly needed, particularly if agencies empower their dedicated employees and private-sector partners to work together to find sustainable efficiencies that improve the way the government serves its citizens.
A truly collaborative process between agencies and their contractors and grantees is a far more effective tool than indiscriminately slashing funding, especially when there are no corollary reductions in program requirements. The same holds true for mandatory pay or hiring freezes for federal employees. Rather than simply dictating across the board reductions or freezes, the first order of business should be redefining agency mission needs in light of today’s fiscal realities and then collaboratively identifying the most efficient ways to meet those needs. Only then can a reasoned determination be made about the appropriate numbers and skills of federal employees or contract support required to successfully meet the mission.
We face some tough decisions and problems. And there's no time like the present to turn people loose and enable their commitment to mission, deep knowledge and creativity to help lead the way forward.”
In the Republican response to the State of the Union, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., set forth an equally bold agenda for reducing the deficit through cutting agency spending to fiscal 2008 levels across the board.
You can read more about Ryan’s thoughts on fiscal responsibility and how government should implement the recommendations of the President’s Fiscal Commission in the upcoming March issue of PSC’s Service Contractor. The March issue also contains a commentary from the Confederation of British Industry’s Rhian Chilcott on how the United Kingdom is approaching its austerity goals.
