Driving Federal Performance

“If we believe the government can make a difference in people’s lives, we have the obligation to prove that it works – by making government smarter, and leaner and more effective…”

President Barack Obama

April 13, 2011

Responding to the President's challenge to cut waste, save money, and better serve the American people, Performance.gov provides a window on the Obama Administration's approach to improving performance and accountability. Performance.gov shows progress on the Administration’s efforts to create a government that is more effective, efficient, innovative, and responsive.

The Administration is strongly committed to investing in what works and fixing or cutting what does not. This effort is ongoing, and demands vigilance and leadership. Whether driving progress on top priorities or cutting the cost of delivery, government leaders at all levels are accountable for achieving results. We invite your ideas and suggestions.

Featured Story: Campaign to Cut Waste

Building on their commitment to improve performance across the government, in June 2011, President Obama and Vice President Biden launched the Campaign to Cut Waste to hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department.  Through a variety of initiatives, the Campaign to Cut Waste is working to ensure that the Federal Government functions efficiently, effectively, and with full accountability to the American people.

Featured Story: Transforming the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Shaun Donovan started using goals as a management tool when he was New York City’s Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development. As the current U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary, he is again seeing how valuable it is to have a limited number of high-priority goals and constantly monitor progress on them.  Click here to watch the video and learn more.

Featured Story: Saving Billions through Increased Technology Oversight

The IT Dashboard allows citizens to monitor every dollar the government spends on large technology projects. The dashboard has been used to power “TechStat” sessions where all of the stakeholders in a project meet together in the same room to diagnose problems and agree on how to fix troubled projects. As a result, we significantly accelerated delivery of critical functionality and achieved a total of $3 billion in lifecycle budget reductions.

Featured Story: Disposing of Excess Property

The government is identifying ways to reduce excess and underutilized properties. This map helps to depict excess properties identified across the country. Learn More

Featured Story: Transparency in Federal Spending

The Administration recently expanded USAspending.gov to show not only how money is spent directly by the government, but also how the government’s recipients spend those funds through sub-contracts and sub-grants. USAspending.gov now displays a total of over $25.4 trillion in prime awards, based on over 47,000 individual prime awards, and over $3.9 trillion total in sub-awards.