All 535 members of Congress believe they are experts on agency efficiency and fixing problems. And often the fixes are contradictory. Giving them more time to conduct oversight hearings with a biennial budget cycle will not change this pattern. But GPRA is only a first step, not a magic elixir. Congress has discovered that performance management is messy.
Goals are difficult to define and measure.
Agencies do not have adequate accounting systems to measure costs. But committees with substantive jurisdiction or appropriations responsibility have not scheduled hearings to examine the operating results. However, as the Commission to Restructure the IRS found, Congress cannot hold an agency accountable if many different committees are involved. Multiple committees can provide reactive, individual responses to agency actions, but not integrated, strategic oversight. A Coordinated, Powerful Voice To address this problem for the IRS, the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act reconfigured Congress' committee system.