OMB and the Central Management Problem: Is Another Reorganization the Answer?

Abstract

From the time of its inception in 1921, in addition to its primary role as the President's budget staff, BoB/ OMB has been charged with broad responsibilities. Although historically some controversy has surrounded what properly encompasses, the traditional conception of BoB/OMB's managerial function may be formulated in the following terms: to provide leadership on the President's behalf in addressing general problems bearing on the organization and effectiveness of the executive branch and to assist in the design and implementation of governmentwide strategies aimed at enhancing the ability of federal agencies to carry out their statutory missions. This general conception of the agency's role has its roots in the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 and has since been reinforced by a series of Executive Orders and reorganization plans, up to and including the reorganization of 1970 which transformed the Bureau of the Budget into the Office of Management and Budget. However, concern about BoB/OMB's institutional capacity to provide management direction for the executive branch has been a persistent theme throughout much of the agency's history. President Roosevelt's Committee on Administrative Management (the Brownlow Committee) was the first in a long series of presidential advisory groups and panels to urge that concrete steps be taken to strengthen BoB/ OMB's management role. With some notable exceptions, most of these recommendations were never implemented and, in the view of many observers, the few efforts that have been made to shore up the side of BoB/OMB's operations generally have proven of only limited or temporary value. In the past few years, recognition of some of the recurring problems which have hampered OMB's ability to provide leadership in the management affairs of government has led to several recommendations for reorganizing responsibility for government-wide management improvement efforts.' One of the more ambitious current reform proposals is sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. On March 26, 1986, Roth