Does Congress Really Care About Increasing Executive Branch Performance?
Does increasing the organizational performance of the executive branch matter to the legislative branch of the federal government, and if so, how much? Legislation concerning goal setting does not guarantee that Congress will use the information to improve agency performance. Nor does granting authority to create pay-for-performance systems guarantee that discretion will be exercised to increase performance. I would argue that Congress has delegated authority to executive branch agencies, but has not effectively managed that delegation to ensure that goals of increased performance are achieved. For example, it was assumed that the passage of GPRA would lead Congress to shift its historic focus solely from public policy creation to include the effective implementation of public policy. That assumption has not been borne out. Despite the congressional rhetoric about the need to improve performance and occasional congressional hearings concerning public policy implementation breakdowns (e
