SPRING 2022 VOL. 71, NO. 1

Government and the Pandemic: 

Transitions

© 2022. AGA. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Final Entry

foundation of accounting standards, 

internal controls, and reporting, set over 

the past 30 years, enabled the rapid 

response from the financial management 

community across government. 

Over the past few years, the Bureau of the 

Fiscal Service at the U.S. Department of 

the Treasury has made progress toward 

becoming a more agile organization; 

during the pandemic it became 

necessary to speed up those practices. 

We’ve learned to move quickly, rely on 

technology, remove silos and take more 

responsible risks. Recently, the National 

Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) 

established an Agile Government Center 

to share best practices for providing 

public goods and services that fully meet 

customer needs and to build public trust. 

The center identified agile principles that 

can be helpful to government leaders.1

Building on those NAPA principles and our 

experiences during the pandemic, here 

are a few lessons we’ve learned. 

n Focus on the customer. During the

pandemic, our customers were

businesses and taxpayers facing

unprecedented economic disruption

or hardship. We learned to keep

customers at the center of our work. It’s

crucial to talk to your customers and

not make assumptions based on your

perspective inside government.

n Make innovation routine. We innovated

out of necessity during the pandemic,

rethinking long-standing business

processes, and we encouraged

Responding to the challenges caused by 

the pandemic has been a top priority for 

governments around the world. The U.S. 

enacted several legislative packages over 

the past two years that total more than 

$4.5 trillion in new budgetary resources 

across the federal government. When you 

compare the pandemic response to the 

American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009, which was about $800 billion, 

the scope of the challenge to implement 

these new resources becomes clear. 

The federal financial management 

community was not directly on the 

frontlines of the pandemic response 

but did work effectively to ensure that 

federal resources were deployed quickly 

and responsibly during this crisis. The 

62 JOURNAL OF GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SPRING 2022

Becoming More Agile: Lessons 

Learned from the Pandemic

By Dave Lebryk

© 2022. AGA. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Applying these principles was a 

key factor in our ability to issue 

three rounds of economic impact 

payments in record time and 

make continuous improvements 

throughout each round of 

payments. For the first round of 

payments in 2020, we issued the first 

81 million payments within 15 days 

of the President’s signature, and we 

made a total of approximately 159 

million payments within eight weeks 

of the first payment. In contrast, the 

last time similar payments were 

made, in 2011, the first payment went 

out 11 weeks after the legislation was 

signed, and it took three months to 

issue a total of 116 million payments.

A dramatic increase in the use 

of electronic payments and the 

implementation of a debit card 

program within six weeks of the 

first payment issuance helped in 

first and subsequent rounds of 

economic impact payments. In 

the second round in January 2020, 

we issued 113 million payments 

within three days of the President’s 

signature and more than 145 million 

payments within four weeks.

By the third round in 2021, we were 

able to convert many check 

payments to direct deposit using 

existing payment data, which further 

accelerated payment delivery for 

many and increased the electronic 

payment rate in the third round to 

82% — up from 74% in the first round. 

We estimate this innovation saved 

more than $30 million in check 

production costs during economic 

impact payments and child tax 

credit payments; at the same 

time, we significantly improved 

the taxpayer experience. In short, 

applying the above principles 

worked to great effect both for the 

government and the customer. 

As we reflect on the lessons of 

the past two years, technological 

advancements were essential to 

innovation and new ways 

of meeting challenges and 

customer needs. 

n Break down silos. Large

organizations develop silos over 

time that impede innovation and 

rapid response. We learned that 

tapping talent and resources from 

across the organization, forming 

small cross-cutting teams, 

and empowering staff to solve 

problems is essential. 

n Be responsive. Our staff was ready

to respond quickly and was fully

committed to success. In any

emergency, response time is vital.

To mobilize resources as quickly

as possible, existing government

processes and systems should

be flexible and allow for rapid

updates to existing policies,

standards or guidance.

n Collect and use data. Good data

matters. Setting a foundation

to collect data from across the

enterprise allows for expedited

reporting to inform leaders,

make data-driven decisions,

and provide transparency to

the public.

n Take responsible risk. By nature,

government bureaucracies are

risk averse. A crisis forces leaders

to take risks they might not

otherwise pursue. Agile processes

allow for responsible risks, such as

development of minimally viable

products and policies that can be

tested and continuously improved

over time.

n Invest in people. Our people made

the difference. Investments in a

workforce that is knowledgeable,

flexible, customer-focused, and

dedicated to the mission pay off

in the long run. Most importantly,

develop a learning culture within

your organization that promotes

curiosity, the development of new

skills, and problem solving.

delivering government services 

during the pandemic, particularly 

as they relate to remote work. The 

seamless transition to telework for 

many federal employees would not 

have been possible 30 years ago, 

and it will continue to influence 

the future of work. 

Let’s hope the pandemic will be 

behind us soon. However, it is 

important to use what we’ve 

learned over the last two years 

to further improve public service 

and strengthen trust in government. These lessons, rooted in 

agile principles, will strengthen 

the government’s ability to be 

responsive, embrace change, and 

deliver to the needs of the public. 

Endnote

1. https://napawash.org/the-agilegovernment-center/overview 

David A. Lebryk, 

recipient of 

AGA’s 2020 Frank 

Greathouse 

Distinguished 

Leadership 

Award, is the 

Fiscal Assistant 

Secretary of the 

U.S. Department of the Treasury, where 

he is responsible for developing policy 

and overseeing the operations of the 

financial infrastructure of the federal 

government, including payments, 

collections, debt financing, 

accounting, and shared services.

SPRING 2022 JOURNAL OF GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 63

© 2022. AGA. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.