§1120 Federal Government and Agency Priority Goals

Summary

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget must work with federal agencies to set government-wide priority goals to make the Federal Government run better. These goals include a few outcome-focused policy goals and management-improvement goals in five areas: financial management, human capital, information technology, procurement and acquisition, and real property. The goals are meant to be long-term. They must be updated at least in the first year of each Presidential term, made public at least when the President’s budget for the first full fiscal year after a new term is sent to Congress, include a plan to meet each goal within that Presidential term, and point to any parts of the budget that support the goal. The OMB Director can change goals if circumstances change, but must tell Congress. The Director must consult periodically with Congress — including key committees such as Appropriations, Budget, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Oversight, Finance, and Ways and Means — at least once every 2 years. Information about the goals must be posted on a public website, and the Federal Government performance plan must match these priority goals. Every 2 years, the head of each major agency must pick agency priority goals from the agency’s performance goals. OMB decides how many agency priority goals there will be government‑wide and for each agency. Each agency priority goal must be a top agency priority, have an ambitious target that can be met in 2 years, name a single official as the “goal leader,” and include quarterly milestones and interim quarterly targets when more frequent data is useful. If a goal requires classified national defense or foreign policy information, that material goes in a classified appendix. Only Federal employees may develop these government and agency priority goals.