Government Capacity
The federal government has a long history of creating and deploying innovative science and technology solutions – but institutional complexity and bureaucratic bottlenecks too often stifle its ability to solve problems.

The federal government has a long history of creating and deploying innovative science and technology solutions – but institutional complexity and bureaucratic bottlenecks too often stifle its ability to solve problems. Amongst the many challenges facing the legislative and executive branches, tools and approaches currently exist that can dramatically increase government’s ability to deliver for the American people, but these tools remain underappreciated and underutilized.

The Federation of American Scientists aims to help the government identify, define, prioritize and champion solutions to society’s most pressing needs, with a focus on financial mechanisms, modernization, and talent and hiring as key drivers for change.

Government Capacity
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Government Capacity
Blog
Tech Hubs, Talent, and the Power of Place: an interview with Maryam Janani-Flores

“There are cities and towns across the country and around the world with immense potential; we just need to help them leverage their assets in a structured way.”

09.05.25 | 6 min read
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Government Capacity
Blog
Direct File Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling

“The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”

08.06.25 | 5 min read
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Government Capacity
Policy Memo
Bringing Transparency to Federal R&D Infrastructure Costs

Using the NIST as an example, the Radiation Physics Building (still without the funding to complete its renovation) is crucial to national security and the medical community. If it were to go down (or away), every medical device in the United States that uses radiation would be decertified within 6 months, creating a significant single point of failure that cannot be quickly mitigated.

07.25.25 | 8 min read
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Government Capacity
Blog
The Data We Take for Granted: Telling the Story of How Federal Data Benefits American Lives and Livelihoods

As the former U.S. Chief Data Scientist, I know first-hand how valuable and vulnerable our nation’s federal data assets are. Like many things in life, we’ve been taking our data for granted and will miss it terribly when it’s gone. 

06.20.25 | 6 min read
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