Federal Financial Management Reform and The Chief Financial Officers Act

This study analyzes the development of financial management reform in the federal government. A series of reform initiatives culminated in passage of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act that prescribes a wide spectrum of changes in federal accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting. The CFO Act may well be the most significant executive branch federal financial management reform since the adoption of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.     

Implementing the Chief Financial Officers Act and the Government Performance and Results Act in the Federal Government

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, along with other legislation passed by Congress, are stimulating major financial management reform in the federal government. This article evaluates reform implementation against nine criteria developed in previous research on this topic. The criteria are accounting system adequacy, congressional intent, ability of Congress to use financial statement data, executive branch implementation incentives, capability of the Office of Management and Budget, utility of financial statements for decision making, use of performance measures in budgeting, coordination of federal organizations charged with implementation responsibility, and executive and congressional support for reform.     

Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986

In June, President Reagan signed the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-335), which establishes the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) for employees hired after December 31, 1983. The program, which goes into effect on January 1, 1987, features a defined benefit retirement plan to augment mandatory coverage under social security. It also permits FERS participants to contribute up to 10 percent of their earnings, on a tax-deferred basis, to a thrift savings plan, with partial matching by the Government. This article describes the provisions of the new system, including survivor annuities and disability benefits. It also explains how employees covered under the Civil Service Retirement System may freeze their earned benefits under that program and transfer to FERS during the period July-December 1987.     

Federal Agency Budget Officers: Who Needs Them?

This article examines the role of federal agency budget officers and their responsibilities from the author's own perspective and experience. The article suggests that it is inadequate to standardize the role of an agency budget oficer other than that used by the agency head to determine if he or she is satisfied with the budget processes in the agency.     

The Vision of Federal Financial Management

This article provides a definition of what "good financial management" means in the respective local, state, and federal arenas and highlights some successful efforts of financial management improvement. Furthermore, eight evaluative criteria for assessing financial management performance developments are suggested and illustrated through current federal examples.     

Federal Administration of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 in Oklahoma

SMCRA, which established detailed standards for the surfacemining of coal, attempted to balance the need to increase coalproduction with safeguarding the environment. The act was basedon the principle of cooperative federalism. The states wereoffered both positive and negative inducements to assume importantroles in the design and implementation of regulatory programsconsistent with the SMCRA. Oklahomas Department of Mines (DOM)carried out the provisions of the act so poorly that the federalOffice of Surface Mining (OSM) was compelled to take over SMCRAinspection and enforcement. Other provisions of the act wereadministered by DOM, which found itself in a condition of "cohabitation"with OSM from 1984–1987. During that time, DOM becamea stronger, technologically sophisticated agency; OSM gaineda greater appreciation of the difficulties of implementing astate program; the mining industry became reconciled to reclamationcontemporaneous with mining; and there was an increase in citizenparticipation. The return of primacy to Oklahoma may usher ina new federal relationship in surface mining regulation, withmore power shifting to the states as budget pressures reducefunds and the number of employees in OSM.     

Implementation of the Routine Use Clause of the Privacy Act

Information privacy, the privacy of personally identifiable data held by organizations, gained access to the federal policy agenda in the sixties. The passage of several legislative acts resulted in protection for information privacy in specific environments and circumstances. In 1974, the Privacy Act was passed, providing citizens limited protection for data held by agencies of the federal government. While the Privacy Act is the cornerstone of protection for citizens with regard to government-held data, the law has been less effective than its designers hoped it would be. One major deject of the law is the routine use clause, which has been subjected to broad interpretation and distortion, to the benefit of executive branch agencies which handle personally identifiable data. This article examines the issue of information privacy, with focus on the misuse of the routine use clause and subsequent implications for citizen privacy.     

Implementation of Aged Care Policy in the Australian Federal System

In 1983–84 the Commonwealth and state governments trialled the introduction of the geriatric assessment team (GAT) program. Twenty years of Australian Health Ministers' Conference (AHMC)¹ minutes and records (1969–88), files within the Queensland and Commonwealth health departments (1983–88) and interviews with major stakeholders revealed that implementation can extend over many years and can require a confluence of factors for a policy idea to come to fruition. This article examines the dynamics involved in the implementation of the GAT policy and reveals that expert advisers played a central role in policy innovation and implementation and that the federal system could both obstruct and facilitate policy implementation. While there was evidence of delay and conflict, the Australian states through their expert advisers were significant contributors to the development and implementation of aged care policies. Many of the intergovernmental relations were often characterised by a high degree of cooperation at least at the officer to officer level. The 'coercive' nature of the federal system may need to be revisited.     

Performance-Based Budgeting to Enhance Implementation of the CFO Act

On August 5, 1992 the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs passed the "Government Performance and Results Act" sponsored by Senators Roth and John Glenn. In introducing this legislation in 1991 Senator Roth made the following statement. ^* This legislation (S. 20) is intended to put teeth into federal efforts to introduce performance measurement currently under implementation by the Office of Management and Budget under the authority of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990.     

行政首长问责制的实施与完善——重庆市推行行政首长问责制的思考

近几年,我国各地的行政首长问责力度明显加大,其制度建设也越来越完善,取得了一定的成效,如:提高了行政机关的执行力,增强了执政为民的意识,提升了问责效果等.但同时也凸显出一些问题,如:异体问责缺位,问责范围及内容不明确,问责程序不规范,责任认定随意性大,责任处理方式缺乏层次感.因此,应按照如下思路完善行政首长问责制:界定问责主体,确定问责范围及内容,规范问责程序,明确责任认定标准,改进责任处理方式.     

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Federal Government Financial Reporting

This article considers the nature of generally accepted accounting principles and how well they match the purpose and activities of the federal government. A comparison of fundamental differences affecting accounting and reporting for private business and the federal government shows that although the generally accepted accounting principles do not work for the federal government, it does not follow that the federal government has nothing to gain from these principles.     

Federal Financial Management Control Systems: An Integrative Framework

The increasingly large and complex web of federal government finances seems to require ever more comprehensive and consistent financial management control systems to achieve managerial responsibility. This article identifies a framework for promoting integrated accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting in order to achieve the goal of providing relevant information to management and policy leaders. The article identifies four central areas in which endeavors to develop effective financial management control systems should concentrate: accounting for funds; assessing the cost of operations; managing cash; and collecting money due the government.     

Applying the Voting Rights Act in Houston: Federal Intervention or Local Political Determination?

Has the Voting Rights Act (VRA) provision requiring local boundarychanges to be precleared by federal officials to ensure minorityvoting strength been excessive national intervention, or haslocal political determination been retained? This question isexamined in Houston, Texas, where the VRA was the catalyst forthe reorganization of Houston's city council in 1979. At firstglance, the Houston case seems to suggest overt federal intervention.On closer examination, however, we found that council changewas born out of compromises among contending local groups. Federalofficials were active participants in the processes of change,but acted as rules interpreters and referees rather than asdirectors of change. Moreover, the application of the VRA inHouston did not result in less local autonomy; instead, it servedto increase the representation of minorities on the council,thus laying the foundation for a more pluralistic local system.     

Insurance Subsidies,the Affordable Care Act,and Financial Stability

This paper measures the effects of subsidies in the Affordable Care Act on adverse financial outcomes using administrative tax data and credit data on financial outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences design with propensity score reweighting, I find that at $100 per capita, ACA premium tax credits and cost-sharing reduction subsidies reduced consumer bankruptcies and severe auto delinquency by 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively, and substantially reduced right-tail delinquent debt and third-party collections. The value of recipients’ risk protection against medical debt payments amounts to approximately 16 to 21 percent of the cash costs of the subsidies, while the subsidies provided substantial indirect transfers to external parties.     

Federalism, Preemption, and Implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act

This essay provides a positive analysis of regulatory federalismin the dynamic telecommunications industry since the 1996 federalTelecommunications Act. While the 1996 legislation clarifiedsome contentious issues, and established a framework for resolvingothers, implementation by the FCC has not been as smooth asmany participants originally assumed. State regulators havecontinued to play an important role in the industry, which courtdecisions have often upheld. As some jurisdictional issues doget resolved, others that were not anticipated in the legislationare emerging, largely related to regulation of Internet services.