Jeffrey Zients is Obama's Pick for Chief Performance Officer
President Obama today named business management consultant Jeffrey Zients as his choice to serve as the government's first chief performance officer.
The president also names Aneesh Chopra as his choice for chief technology officer. Obama says he's ready to clean house, revamping 'government operations from top to bottom.'
By Mark Silva
9:41 AM PDT, April 18, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- President Obama today named a business management consultant as his choice to serve as the government's first chief performance officer, part of the new president's pledge to gain control over wasteful spending.
Jeffrey Zients, a consultant and entrepreneur, is the president's second nominee for the post.
The first, Nancy Killefer, withdrew her candidacy earlier this year to spare the Obama administration the "distraction" of a candidate with a personal tax problem in Washington. Killefer, a business consultant, had failed to pay employment taxes on her household help.
She withdrew in the midst of public controversy over Obama's first nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who withdrew after paying more than $120,000 in back federal income taxes.
For Obama, who entered office with an inaugural pledge to initiate "a new era of responsibility," gaining control over wasteful spending is part of an attempt to restore public confidence in government at a time when the nation faces record budget deficits and spending, as well as a recession that has cost millions of people their jobs and some their homes.
The president, who will call on his Cabinet officers Monday to recommend budget cuts, said today in his weekly radio and Internet address that he will announce "the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective" in coming weeks.
"If we're going to rebuild our economy on a solid foundation, we need to change the way we do business in Washington," Obama said in his address, in which he also named Zients and a chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra. "We need to restore the American people's confidence in their government -- that it is on their side, spending their money wisely, to meet their families' needs."
Zients, with 20 years of business experience, served as chief executive and chairman of the Advisory Board Co. and chairman of the Corporate Executive Board, firms that provide business performance benchmarks. He is the founder and managing partner of Portfolio Logic. In his role as chief performance officer, he also will serve as deputy of the Office of Management and Budget.
Chopra, now serving as Virginia's secretary of technology, previously worked as managing director for the Advisory Board Co. The White House says his role as chief technology officer will be to promote technological innovation in government.
The president, proposing a record $3.55-trillion federal budget for 2010, also faces record budget deficits, which he has pledged to cut in half by the end of his term.
In addition, Obama confronts persistent criticism from Republicans in Congress that his spending and deficits are irresponsible in the face of a recession. In addition to seeking a budget with new initiatives in healthcare, energy and more, he has won a $787-billion economic stimulus bill and committed hundreds of billions of dollars to federal bailouts of the banking, insurance and auto industries and home mortgage lending.
From the start, Obama's attempt to project a commitment to efficiency and "transparency" in government has been sidetracked by the personal financial problems of some of his top appointees, chiefly Daschle.
Killefer's failure to pay employment taxes on household help for a year and a half resulted in a tax lien being placed against her home.
"I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your chief performance officer are urgent," Killefer wrote in her letter of withdrawal, allowing that "in the current environment" her tax problem "could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid."
"It's not news to say that we are living through challenging times," Obama said in his address today, delivered while he was at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. He made note of "the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, a credit crisis that has made that downturn worse and a fiscal disaster that has accumulated over a period of years.
"But as surely as our future depends on building a new energy economy, controlling healthcare costs and ensuring that our kids are once again the best educated in the world, it also depends on restoring a sense of responsibility and accountability to our federal budget," he said. "Without significant change to steer away from ever-expanding deficits and debt, we are on an unsustainable course."
On Monday, the president said, he will ask his Cabinet members to recommend specific budget cuts.
The magnitude of this task, in a government with a budget of more than $3 trillion, can be seen in one of the cuts that Obama cites as already underway: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is ending consulting contracts to create new seals and logos that have cost the agency $3 million since 2003.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is targeting billions of dollars in Defense contracting for elimination, while his own budget grows.
"In the coming weeks," Obama said today, "I will be announcing the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective. In this effort, there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects."
His team of management, technology and budget experts will "help us revamp government operations from top to bottom and ensure that the federal government is truly working for the American people," the president said.
"None of this will be easy," he said in his address. "Big change never is. But with the leadership of these individuals, I am confident that we can break our bad habits, put an end to the mismanagement that has plagued our government and start living within our means again."
