CopyThe How We Need Now: A Capacity Agenda for 2025 and BeyondA strategic plan for improving the capacity and effectiveness of the American administrative stateNiskanen CenterNC_452c0e82-66a3-11ed-ae4e-6a84f682ea00Named the "The Most Interesting Think Tank in American Politics" by TIME Magazine in 2023, the Niskanen Center promotes policies that advance prosperity, opportunity, and human flourishing, guided by the belief that a free market and an effective government are mutually dependent. ^^ We are forging a new vision of American governance that draws on ideas from across the ideological spectrum, an approach made possible by our independence from rigid political coalitions. Our ideological openness gives us credibility to work with a broad range of actors, meeting them on their own terms and helping them converge on policies they might support for different reasons. We thus aspire to be a voice for the hopes and ambitions of Americans who feel shut out by the hostility of our politics.Jennifer PahlkaShe served as deputy chief technology officer of the United States under President Obama and a member of the Defense Innovation Board under both Obama and Trump. She founded the award-winning nonprofit Code for America, which she led for ten years. Pahlka is the winner of a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and was selected by Wired magazine as one of the people who have most shaped technology and society in the past twenty-five years. Ezra Klein called her book Recoding America "one of the best policy books I have ever read" and "the book I wish all policymakers would read."Co-AuthorSenior Fellow, Niskanen CenterJennifer Pahlka is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Federation of American Scientists, Senior Advisor, Abundance Networkand a senior advisor to the Abundance Network.Andrew GreenwayAndrew Greenway is a co-founder of Public Digital, and a former senior UK public servant. While in government, he was one of the founders of the Government Digital Service, leading work to create new digital guidelines and standards; a model of institutional change copied by many governments worldwide, including the US. He wrote Digital Transformation at Scale, a book commended by the former Prime Ministers of the UK and Australia, which has become a reference text for driving institutional reform around the world. He also co-wrote the influential Radical How report on mission-driven government, published in 2024. Co-AuthorCo-Founder, Public DigitalPublic Digital is a global digital transformation consultancy, headquartered in London, that radically changes how organizations work so that they deliver excellent services and greater impact, even when the future is uncertain. It has advised more than 40 governments around the world, including the federal and state governments in the US. It works with international funders and multinational businesses, including the World Bank, UN Development Programme, Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.ContributorsThanks to Ben Bain, David Dagan, Nicholas Bagley, Marci Harris, Geoff Kabaservice, Soren Dayton, Kodiak Hill-Davis, Robert Gordon, Jennifer Erickson, Charlie Anderson, and Kelly Taylor for their help in writing and editing this paper.Writing & EditingA government with the capacity to effectively implement policy and deliver results for the American people, characterized by efficient bureaucracy, modern digital infrastructure, and outcomes-focused operations._3a8ad9e6-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6To transform how government operations by reforming civil service, reducing procedural complexity, investing in digital infrastructure, and creating feedback loops between policy and implementation._3a8adce8-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6MeritMaintaining high standards of integrity, performance, and public interest in government workforce.EfficiencyStreamlining processes while maintaining necessary oversight and accountability.Hiring & FiringHire the right people and fire the wrong ones_3a8adf36-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf61Hire the right people and fire the wrong ones ~ Government gets stuff done because of the people in it and the functions they are hired to fulfill. While the federal workforce includes countless dedicated, creative, and effective public servants, the system that selects, promotes, retains, and manages them is badly broken. Furthermore, too much of the work they are asked to do is the wrong work. Both of these issues need immediate attention. Civil ServiceReform the civil service_3a8adf72-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf61.1REFORM THE CIVIL SERVICE ~ The foundations of the civil service are good. The Pendleton Act of 188331 was designed to move from a system of political patronage to one in which the majority of our government workers earn and keep their jobs based on merit and performance. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established a set of Merit System Principles that describe a system in which "all employees…maintain high standards of integrity, conduct, and concern for the public interest," "employees [are] retained on the basis of adequacy of their performance, inadequate performance [is] corrected, and employees [are] separated who cannot or will not improve their performance to meet required standards," and "the Federal workforce [is] used efficiently and effectively."1.1.1Unspecified..._3a8adfb8-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_1Status[To be determined]ResultsRedirect the government's workforce from perfecting compliance toward pursuing results over the long term_3a8adff4-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf61.2[To be named]REBALANCE THE BRAKE AND THE GAS ~ As important as getting the right people in the right positions is making sure to have the right positions in the first place. In particular, we need to redirect the government's workforce from perfecting compliance toward pursuing results over the long term, and we must imagine what government jobs of the future will look like. ^^ All systems must strike a balance between "go energy" and "stop energy," similar to a car's gas pedal and brake. Of course we need government agencies to exercise “stop authority” to ensure good governance, but our teams charged with achieving mission goals, with hitting the gas to meet critical national needs, almost always feel outgunned by those whose jobs are to hit the brakes. "We were six people trying to deliver the product," one staffer told us. "There were easily 60 people telling us everything we couldn't do." ^^ This is not simply a matter of cutting back on compliance-focused staff on a team. You have to simultaneously reduce the amount of compliance work there is to do. Otherwise you run the risk of making the already-damaging drag on the team's productivity even worse. Leadership must actively exercise judgment to decide what compliance is needed and how burdensome it needs to be, since, in the absence of direction from above, teams will default to the maximum of what might be required in order to cover all bases. We discuss this in greater detail in the next section.1.2.1Unspecified..._3a8ae03a-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_2Status[To be determined]ProceduresReduce procedural bloat_3a8ae080-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf62Reduce procedural bloat ~ A police officer hired to patrol a beat to preserve public safety spends at least 80 percent of his time on paperwork. A technologist hired to develop a web application for a state agency spends more time on compliance documentation than writing code. A procurement officer for the Defense Department spends shockingly little time actually evaluating and purchasing goods and services to meet the needs of our national security. While our first pillar highlights the need for government to hire the right people for the right job, aggressively reducing the burdens that keep our existing workforce from achieving the outcomes taxpayers believe they are paying for could go even further towards increasing state capacity, if done alongside wider reform.RequirementsSystematically evaluate and simplify administrative procedures_3a8ae0c6-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf62.1TAKE ON POLICY, PROCEDURE, AND REGULATORY ACCRETION As suggested by our discussion of the "procedure fetish" in Part 3, "right-sizing" procedures to be fit for purpose would go a long way toward unsticking the permanent brake in the metaphorical car. ^^ Congressional and executive leaders should engage in large-scale inquiry into the appropriateness of the procedures mandated by law and policy by asking three questions: ^^ 1. What harms is a procedure intended to protect against? ^^ 2. Are those harms well addressed by the procedure as practiced today? ^^ 3. Is the protection against those harms, as practiced today, worth the costs of imposing the procedure? 2.1.1Procedures_3a8ae116-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_3Right-size procedures that impact every agencyStatusRight Sized[To be determined]The vast majority of procedures are bespoke, built to meet a specific need within a specific agency. These can only be addressed by wide-ranging inquiry by agency leadership and the Congressional committees who oversee them using the rubric described above. But there are also procedures that affect all agencies, all policy domains. Every agency is affected by the procedural burdens of compliance with human resources policy, procurement policy, and cross-cutting laws like the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Efforts to right-size these procedural burdens would impact the real productivity of some significant number of the 3 million federal government employees.2.1.2PoliciesNumber_3a8ae15c-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_4Reduce policy accretionStatusReduced[To be determined]At the root of these out-of-control procedures is out-of-control policy and regulatory growth. Pentagon policy suffers from this mightily, weighing in at the equivalent to 100 copies of "War and Peace." This has consequences not just in the bureaucracy, but on the battlefield. Warfighters are required to assess planned operations' compliance with law and policy before acting. As one former DoD employee put it, "If the time to understand the policies exceeds the time window, the operation gets canceled." There are plenty of reasons an operation should be canceled, but failure to understand our own rules should not be one of them. And this example barely scratches the surface of the challenges this policy cruft can create for operational effectiveness, in the Pentagon and far beyond.Legal ChallengesReduce the surface area for legal attack_3a8ae1ac-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf62.2[To be named]REDUCE THE SURFACE AREA FOR LEGAL ATTACK ~ Public servants tend to focus on process and procedure in part because their agencies are so frequently sued. Proper process and procedure help -- but do not always succeed -- in limiting the number and impact of those lawsuits. The last century has seen a mostly steady increase in the rights of individuals and interest groups to sue the state, on the theory that these rights would constrain the worst impulses of government and make it more responsive to the public's needs. While the increase in those rights has had many positive impacts, the time has come to consider whether the right to sue has so effectively crippled the state into inaction and tied it into bureaucratic knots that the needs of the public are not in fact being met. 2.2.1Unspecified..._3a8ae206-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_5Status[To be determined]Trade-OffsResist trade-off denial_3a8ae260-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf62.3[To be named]RESIST TRADE-OFF DENIAL ~ In Part 3, we discussed the problems of laws, policies, and practices that try to achieve too many goals at once, thereby achieving none of them well. Ultimately this is an issue of setting priorities and operating to those priorities. As we said earlier, if something is a true priority, it means that it will likely happen at the expense of something else. Our leaders in the executive and legislative branches are not always going to agree on priorities, but where there is agreement, there must also be a recognition of what can give way to make room for what now needs to be done. 2.3.1Unspecified..._3a8ae2ba-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_6Status[To be determined]InfrastructureBuild modern technical capabilities across government_3a8ae31e-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf63Government's digital capacity and competencies are downstream of its ability to organize around outcomes, to reduce procedural bloat, and to hire and retain the needed workforce. So far we’ve discussed these bigger issues because you can't get technology right without addressing them. But almost all implementation in government relies on, is enabled by, and feeds into digital and data infrastructure. And getting the tech right, and adopting tech industry practices, can help organize around outcomes.ProductsTransition to product model funding_3a8ae378-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf63.1TRANSITION TO PRODUCT MODEL FUNDING ~ Investment implies higher spending. And we do need to spend on platforms and teams, both discussed below. But within the frameworks dominant in government today, higher spending in digital rarely results in better software. We are often spending too much, and spending it badly. If we want to build resilient, scalable software that works at a cost roughly commensurate with the private sector, we must change the model that governs how we do it. 3.1.1Unspecified..._3a8ae3e6-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_7Status[To be determined]TeamsInvest in teams_3a8ae44a-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf63.2[To be named]INVEST IN CENTRALIZED AND DECENTRALIZED TEAMS ~ The required investments in staff to move from a project model to a product model are small compared to the costs of outsourced mega-projects, especially when those fail. Similarly, creating centralized digital capacity in offices like the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and the Technology Transformation Service (TTS) generates enormous returns on investment. These teams not only intervene when projects go off the rails, but they spread the product model and other best practices throughout the federal government, preventing future disasters and building up capabilities within agencies. To name just one example, they’ve helped the Social Security Administration save $280 million in infrastructure costs and reduce their call center wait time from over 42 minutes to under 12 over the last quarter.3.2.1Unspecified..._3a8ae4b8-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_8Status[To be determined]PlatformsInvest in platforms_3a8ae530-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf63.3[To be named]INVEST IN PLATFORMS ~ When you pull apart government services into their constituent parts, lots of the individual components are fundamentally the same. Filling in a form, finding out whether you are eligible for a program, taking a payment, sending a query about the status of your application, verifying that you are the person you claim to be when using a service -- all of these elements apply equally to a huge range of interactions between citizens and the government. 3.3.1Unspecified..._3a8ae59e-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_9Status[To be determined]AIRight-size AI guardrails_3a8ae60c-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf63.4[To be named]RIGHT-SIZE AI GUARDRAILS ~ We've discussed the "cascade of rigidity" that occurs when well-intentioned laws and regulations become increasingly inflexible as they step down through bureaucratic hierarchies. This dynamic disproportionately affects technology issues in part because few people in that hierarchy understand the technology in question, and lack of understanding drives towards a "better safe than sorry" approach. We see this, for example, in how the security requirements in the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, meant to be a flexible framework, have become an exercise in mandatory checklists that actually reduce security rather than enhance it.3.4.1Unspecified..._3a8ae68e-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_10Status[To be determined]OutcomesClose the loop around outcomes_3a8ae706-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64Close the loop around outcomes ~ We need a new operating model for government if we are to restore our capacity to achieve our policy goals. This model must close the open loop we described in Part 3: a one-way system from law- and policy-making to implementation to real world outcomes that offers little space for learning and adjustment along the way. We can no longer rely on media coverage and elections, blunt tools that tend to be saved only for the most catastrophic errors, as the main corrective mechanisms. FeedbackAlign funding to support feedback loops_3a8ae77e-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.1ALIGN FUNDING TO SUPPORT FEEDBACK LOOPS ~ One of the many things that makes it hard for government to close the feedback loop is how it tends to spend. In Part 3, we talked about what happens when the public sector goes beyond buying the goods and services it needs and instead abdicates responsibility to its vendors. In a section above, we described a contrasting model for procurement particularly of digital work, one that gets far better value from the contractor ecosystem because it puts internal competency and capacity first and allows for continual improvement over time. These discussions all lead toward a critical, and increasingly obvious, conclusion: many of the dysfunctions that plague government are downstream of our funding practices.4.1.1Unspecified..._3a8ae800-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_11Status[To be determined]CompetenceFund internal competence_3a8ae88c-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.2[To be named]FUND INTERNAL COMPETENCE FIRST ~ Ongoing, flexible funding is only part of the picture. We also need to fund the right internal competencies and capabilities. Nothing in the product model -- not the early inquiry, nor the scaling up, nor the hiring of vendors -- works without staff with the right skills and approaches.4.2.1Unspecified..._3a8ae90e-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_12Status[To be determined]OversightAlign oversight to the new models_3a8ae9c2-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.3[To be named]ALIGN OVERSIGHT TO NEW MODELS ~ We need to shift to incremental, ongoing funding for products and capabilities supported by the right internal competencies. But changing the funding models will fail if the bodies responsible for oversight of these funds expect the same artifacts and trappings of the legacy models. You can't oversee agile, user-centered development with requirements-driven waterfall frameworks. Everyone just talks past each other. 4.3.1Unspecified..._3a8aeb16-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_13Status[To be determined]EnablementFocus on enablements_3a8aeba2-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.4[To be named]FOCUS ON ENABLEMENT OVER MANDATES AND CONSTRAINTS ~ Recently one of us was asked by Congressional staffers to advise on how to improve the performance of an agency they believed was failing to carry out Congress's will. After an overview of initial ideas, we offered an observation. "It sounds like you're searching for the right mandates and constraints to impose on this agency to get the results you want." The staffers agreed that was a reasonable characterization of the request. "But this agency has been on the receiving end of mandates and constraints from this body for decades," we reflected. "They don't seem to be working." Again, the staffers agreed. In fact, they shared, the agency's performance only got worse with every attempt to make it better.4.4.1Unspecified..._3a8aec4c-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_14Status[To be determined]Congressional CapacityInvest in Congressional capacity_3a8aece2-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.5CongressINVEST IN CONGRESSIONAL CAPACITY ~ With roughly 1/120th the staff of the executive branch,70 Congress lacks the capacity and expertise to address every detail of implementation detail. In a post-Chevron world, Congress must be very clear about exactly what delegated authority it assigns to agencies. The Hill will need to learn to engage with executive branch agencies as partners by establishing a well-defined dialogue between Members of Congress and agency personnel. This will require closer oversight and understanding of implementation challenges to identify opportunities to refine policies as issues arise. 4.5.1Unspecified..._3a8aed78-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_15Status[To be determined]Legislative IncentivesIncentivize legislators to close the loop_3a8aee72-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.6LegislatorsINCENTIVIZE LEGISLATORS TO CLOSE THE LOOP ~ Arguably, the biggest impact legislators can make for their constituents is helping the systems that administer our current laws, policies, and programs run better. Any constituent services staffer on the Hill will tell you how much frustration their callers express with their disability claims, their tax returns, their Medicare coverage. Congress passes bills every year that affect how these programs function, but as soon as they're passed, the focus moves to what should be legislated next. The bulk of a legislator's time is spent not on improving the delivery of the programs we have today, but on writing new rules to add to the old ones, and introducing entirely new topics. 4.6.1Unspecified..._3a8aef12-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_16Status[To be determined]Operating ModelsMake the new operating models the norm_3a8aefb2-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf64.7[To be named]MAKE NEW OPERATING MODELS THE NORM ~ Taken together, the steps outlined above are more than a checklist of tasks to be completed. They represent the start of a different operating model for government, one that may feel new but is in fact far more consistent with the vision our Founders held. That vision has been blurred as the nation grew, the government took on more and more responsibilities, and the ever-growing complexity of our bureaucracy created vast distances between the policies as envisioned and the lived experience of those policies in the wild. The new operating model must leverage the tools and thinking of the digital age to reverse this unwelcome trend and collapse distances in a number of directions, particularly between policymakers, implementers, and the public whom both are meant to serve. ^^ A shift to a new operating model that can connect across branches of government will be the work of more than one Congress, more than one presidential administration. It will require the leadership of more than one party. It should begin now. 4.7.1Unspecified..._3a8af0fc-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6PLACEHOLDER_17Status[To be determined]_3a8af1b0-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf62025-01-012030-12-312025-01-10https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Niskanen-State-Capacity-Paper_-Jen-Pahlka-and-Andrew-Greenway-2.pdf_3a8af2c8-cfaa-11ef-b630-46e87ababdf6OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net