3.1: National Objectives
Reexamine the Federal Government’s Role in Achieving Evolving National Objectives Other Information:
Within the context of the major trends and long-term fiscal imbalance, evaluating the role of the government and the programs
it delivers is vital to determining how to best position the federal government for the 21st century. With the government
facing an array of complex challenges and opportunities, a strategic long-term view is critical in considering how best to
design programs to manage effectively across boundaries and meet the nation’s needs and priorities today and in the future.
Policymakers will need forward-looking information to set the stage for early warnings about emerging threats and make informed
choices about effective government responses. As the pace of change accelerates in every aspect of American life, policymakers
and the public need more and better information to assess where the nation is and where it is going. In this regard, developing
key national indicators for the United States can help policymakers assess the overall position and progress of the nation
in key areas, frame strategic issues, and support informed public debate and decisions within and between levels of government
and the United States as a whole. Addressing the nation’s strategic challenges increasingly depends on the joint efforts of
all levels of government and the interactions and interdependencies between the various actors, policy tools, and management
functions. In most federal mission areas—from low-income housing to food safety to higher education assistance—national goals
are achieved through the use of various policy tools, such as direct spending, grants, loans and loan guarantees, insurance,
tax expenditures, and regulations. Any assessment of federal missions and strategies must look at the tools that the federal
government uses and the participation of other organizations in achieving national objectives. Although policy tools have
proliferated in recent decades, knowledge of how to design and manage the federal policy tool set has not kept pace. Policymakers
need a better understanding of how individual policy tools operate, how to measure their performance and effectiveness, which
actors participate in implementing various tools, and what features are necessary to ensure accountability and oversight.
The effectiveness of federal programs increasingly depends on state and local management and resources as well as constructive
interactions between federal, state, and local actors, including private and nonprofit entities. The intergovernmental system
is being tested by a complex array of specific short- and long-term challenges. Federal, state, and local governments are
facing daunting problems in managing programs involving numerous actors inside and outside of government that are both nonroutine
and routine in nature. For example, jurisdictions face challenges in working with other levels of government, nonprofits,
and the private sector in areas ranging from preparing for, responding to, and recovering from catastrophes, such as a potential
influenza pandemic, to effectively managing key areas of national life, such as providing quality education and health care.
Moreover, the unique advantages of a federal system—the flexibility and capacity to respond to local needs—are challenged
by long-term trends, such as advances in technology and communications that span state and national boundaries.
Indicator(s):
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