Bold Government Capacity Policy for 2025 and Beyond

The U.S. federal government is critical to solving today’s wicked problems. As powerful as this institution can be, ever-growing complexity challenges the government’s ability to quickly innovate and deliver on its mission. Insufficient feedback loops, misaligned incentives, and bureaucratic bottlenecks slow progress and hinder implementation. As Jen Pahlka recently states in response to the Department of Government Efficiency, “There is a need to make the government more effective by clearing out the clutter and procedural inflation that has frustrated mission-driven public servants.”

Over the last four years, ambitious new legislation has tested the U.S. Government’s capacity to deliver for the American people (e.g., American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, etc.). Through these efforts, we have learned that there is great opportunity for improvement.

Building federal capacity within–and through–talent and hiring, financial and contracting mechanisms, technology and service modernization, and decision making processes will equip the U.S. government to solve today’s most pressing challenges. We believe immense capacity can be unlocked through:

Talent and Hiring

Government, like all institutions, depends on people to run. We need more people with the right skills and expertise for the many critical jobs we require today. Yet hiring and developing talent is a challenge. Long administrative processes and persistent bottlenecks make it difficult to quickly fill personnel gaps. Rapid changes in science, technology, and society only exacerbate these challenges, requiring the ability to responsively acquire people with new skills. Drawing on industry-led approaches, the federal government needs to improve its ability to attract talent, quickly hire qualified candidates, and develop their staff to support and enable high performance. 

Below are a series of eleven (11) policy memos that highlight opportunities to improve the federal government’s talent and hiring.

A Military Talent Initiative for Noncitizen Technologists by Jordan Sun, Matthew Fitzgerald, Alex McLeod, and James Long

Competent and innovative technologists are crucial to the future of U.S. national security. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) warns that a digital talent deficit at the Department of Defense (DOD) represents the greatest impediment to the U.S. military’s effective embrace of emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence). A new Digital Military Talent Initiative could help address the military’s digital-talent gap by providing an expedited path to U.S. citizenship through military service for noncitizen technologists aligned to NSCAI archetypes. Modernization of an already-existing DOD program and military enlistment policy updates could infuse digital talent by providing vetted noncitizens a pathway to accelerated naturalization through military service.

Coming soon: Better Hires Faster by Peter Bonner 

Coming soon: Building a Mission Capable HR Workforce for America by Jason Briefel 

Coming soon: Building Regional Cyber Coalitions: Reimagining CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative to Empower Mission-Focused Cyber Professionals Across the Nation by Zach Nandapurkar

Democratizing Hiring: A Public Jobs Board For A Fairer, More Transparent Political Appointee Hiring Process by Mai Sistla, and Betsy Cooper

Current hiring processes for political appointees are opaque and problematic; job openings are essentially closed off except to those in the right networks. To democratize hiring, the next administration should develop a public jobs board for non-Senate-confirmed political appointments, which includes a list of open roles and job descriptions. By serving as a one-stop shop for those interested in serving in an administration, an open jobs board would bring more skilled candidates into the administration, diversify the appointee workforce, expedite the hiring process, and improve government transparency.

Coming soon: Elevate and Strengthen the Presidential Management Fellows Program by The Volcker Alliance (Maya Corrin, Peter Morrissey, and Will Fabian)

Coming soon: From Strategy to Impact: Establishing an AI Corps to Accelerate HHS Transformation by Enlli Lewis

Investing In Apprenticeships To Fill Labor-Market Talent And Opportunity Gaps by Jan Jaro

The last three administrations have made significant strides towards expanding the number of pathways to high-earning jobs through apprenticeship programs, yet they remain under-utilized and have significant potential for growth. To maximize the potential of apprenticeship programs, the federal government should develop a cohesive approach to supporting “apprenticeships of the future,” such as those in cyber, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. These apprenticeships provide high pay and upward mobility, support economic growth, and serve vital national interests.

Coming soon: Right Person, Right Role, Right Time by Eddie Hartwig 

Coming soon: Unlocking The Future Of Work: The Urgent Need to Update Federal Job Classifications by Monica Sanders 

Coming soon: Unpacking Hiring: Toward a Regional Federal Talent Strategy by The Volcker Alliance (Peter Morrissey, Maya Corrin, and Will Fabian)

Procurement and Contracting Mechanisms

A set of innovative financial and contracting mechanisms exist in government with the power to radically accelerate research, development, demonstration, production, and deployment of novel technologies to address societal challenges. However, agencies too rarely use these tools and authorities due to risk aversion, authority misinterpretation, unclear ownership, and lack of knowledge for implementation. There is an opportunity to increase the uptake of innovative financial and contracting mechanisms across government and apply the mechanisms to advance science and technological advancements, particularly across global development, energy, and environment.

Below are a series of five (5) policy memos that highlight opportunities to apply innovative procurement and contracting mechanisms.

Coming soon: Empower International Development through an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Development and Humanitarian Affairs by Meredith Perry, Amanda Arch, and Walter Kerr

Coming soon: Enabling U.S. Leadership on Global Climate Innovations through Pull Financing by Sebastian Chaskel, Ben Stephens, and Ranil Dissanayake 

Coming soon: Fixing Impact: How Fixed Prices Can Scale Results-Based Procurement at USAID by Sebastian Chaskel, and Richard Crespin 

Mobilizing Innovative Financial Mechanisms at USAID and Department of State to Drive Tangible Impacts in Climate Adaptation Outcomes for Developing Nations by Autumn Burton, and Irene Ngun

The dire implications of rising global temperatures extend across a spectrum of risks, from health crises exacerbated by heat stress, malnutrition, and disease, to economic disparities that disproportionately affect vulnerable communities in the U.S. and in low- and middle-income countries. To address these challenges, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) should mobilize finance through environmental impact bonds focused on scaling extreme heat adaptation solutions, and the Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security (REFS) within the USAID should take the lead in tracking and reporting on climate adaptation funding data. By addressing the urgent need for comprehensive adaptation strategies, we can increase resilience and protect communities from the increasing threats posed by extreme heat.

Using Home Energy Rebates To Support Market Transformation by Alan H. Staple, Ryan Fu, Steve Isaacs, and Hallie Huffaker

Without market-shaping interventions, federal and state subsidies for energy-efficient products like heat pumps often lead to higher prices, leaving the overall market worse off when rebates end. The Department of Energy (DOE) should prioritize the development of evidence-based market-transformation strategies that states can implement with their Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) program funding by using its existing allocation of administrative funds to create a central capability to (1) develop market-shaping toolkits and an evidence base on how state programs can improve value for money and achieve market transformation and (2) provide market-shaping program implementation assistance to states.

Modernizing the Federal Government

The federal government is challenged to develop new and advanced technological systems to drive process efficiencies, support data-driven decision making, and improve customer experience. Agencies are often stuck maintaining archaic and outdated technology, or in some cases, do not have any technology to support their processes. Both antiquated systems and the lack of technology slow down processes and place a burden on both civil servants and the public. It becomes increasingly difficult to collect data needed to make informed decisions and assess the impact of policy interventions. There is an immense opportunity for the government to eliminate inefficiencies, save money, and improve their services, and we need to enable the government to drive these improvements.

Below are a series of six (6) policy memos that highlight opportunities to improve the federal government’s talent and hiring.

Building a Comprehensive NEPA Database to Facilitate Innovation by Nikki Chiappa

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Innovation and Jobs Act are set to drive $300 billion in energy infrastructure investment by 2030. Without permitting reform, however, lengthy review processes threaten to make these federal investments one-third less effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the urgency to reform the law, there is a striking lack of available data on how NEPA actually works. Much of the data needed to populate a more comprehensive NEPA database does exist, but it is stored in a complex network of incompatible software systems, limiting both public access and interagency collaboration. The next administration should build teams and systems to create a searchable database and dashboard that tracks vital metadata across all existing NEPA documents and serves as an essential foundation for reform.

Driving Product Model Development with the Technology Modernization Fund by Ben Bain, Jennifer Pahlka, Beth Simone Noveck, and Lynn Overmann

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) currently funds multi-year technology projects to help agencies improve their service delivery. However, many agencies abdicate responsibility for project outcomes to vendors, lacking the internal leadership and project development teams necessary to apply a product model approach focused on user needs, starting small, learning what works, and making adjustments as needed. To promote better outcomes, TMF could make three key changes to help agencies shift from simply purchasing static software to acquiring ongoing capabilities that can meet their long-term mission needs: (1) provide education and training to help agencies adopt the product model; (2) evaluate investments based on their use of effective product management and development practices; and (3) fund the staff necessary to deliver true modernization capacity. 

Coming soon: Modernizing the Security Evaluation and Authorization of Technology in Government by Noah Firth 

Coming soon: Reform Government Operations for Significant Savings and Improved Services by Steve Goodrich

Scaling Proven IT Modernization Strategies Across The Federal Government by Greg Godbout

Ten years after the creation of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and 18F, the federal government still struggles to buy, build, and operate technology in a speedy, modern, scalable way. While there have been success stories, most government technology and delivery practices remain antiquated and the replacement process remains too slow. This memo proposes a new effort to rapidly scale proven IT modernization strategies across the federal government. The result will be a federal government with the structure and culture in place to buy, build, and deliver technology that meets the needs of Americans today and into the future.

Coming soon: Transforming the Carceral Experience: Leveraging Technology for Rehabilitation by April Feng

Improving Access to Expert Advice for Decision Makers

Policy makers need access to expertise, up-to-date information, and public feedback to make well-informed decisions. While there are some methods of doing this today, there is great opportunity to improve, especially with the recent overturn of the Chevron doctrine, making it more important than ever for external-to-government sources to provide expert advice to federal agencies and to Congress.

Below are a series of six (6) policy memos that highlight opportunities to improve mechanisms for providing expert advice to decision makers.

Collaborative Intelligence: Harnessing Crowd Forecasting for National Security by Deger Turan, Leonard Barrett, and Molly Hickman

Crowd forecasting methods offer a systematic approach to quantifying the U.S. intelligence community’s uncertainty about the future and predicting the impact of interventions, allowing decision-makers to strategize effectively and allocate resources by outlining risks and tradeoffs in a legible format. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) should leverage its earlier investments in crowd-forecasting research to enhance intelligence analysis and interagency coordination by developing a next-generation crowd-forecasting program that balances academic rigor with policy relevance. This could be accomplished by partnering a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) with crowd forecasting experience and executive branch agencies to generate high-value forecasting questions and integrate targeted forecasts into existing briefing and decision-making processes.

Coming soon: Creating a Science and Technology Hub for Congress by Maya Kornberg 

Coming soon: How to Prompt New Cross-Agency and Cross-Sector Collaboration to Advance Learning Agendas by Adam Levine

Coming soon: Participatory Technology Assessment for the Legislative Branch by Mahmud Farooque

“Policy Experiment Stations” to Accelerate State and Local Government Innovation by Anna Harvey et al

This memo seeks to accelerate state and local policy innovation by advocating for the creation of a national network of university-based “Policy Experiment Stations.” This memo proposes creating a federal grant program to support innovation labs in each state. These labs would partner with state and local governments to evaluate their programs, provide guidance on the existing evidence base, and assist with implementation of evidence-based policies and programs. The labs would bolster state and local government capacity for implementing evidence-based reforms, and enable them to use federal dollars more effectively.

Coming soon: Supporting Federal Decision Making through Participatory Technology Assessment by Mahmud Farooque, and Michelle Govani