On April 29th President Barack Obama will have been in office for 100 days
and the White House is preparing for the inevitable press coverage of the milestone. To help them frame their response to the media attention, the White House has asked cabinet department offices to demonstrate
how they are fulfilling the promise of change. One of our inside sources provided OhMyGov! with the guidance from the
White House to highlight the administrations accomplishments.
The memo asks each department to produce a report that "weaves a narrative about the Secretary's vision for his or her agency, the major policy achievements, and the ways in which the work of the Department has furthered the larger goals of the Obama Administration."
Departments are asked to focus on the recovery act, reform, policy and regulatory initiatives, and interagency efforts. Perhaps most interesting of all, they are requested to demonstrate how the department's
broad policy goals and themes break from the policies of the Bush
Administration.
If there's one thing government is good at, it is producing
reports -- usually, reports that sit on the shelf and gather dust. But this
report is different and insiders have indicated that the Departments
are concerned about showing real results that create jobs, that are
innovative, demonstrate true accountability and are transparent.
More
importantly, the Obama administration has limited departmental
responses to 10 pages, not the typical 100 page bound report with so
much information one is overwhelmed by the content and can't decipher the
real achievements. This report will be a concise and targeted
effort to highlight change that is directly affecting the American
people in a positive way.
While the American people are waiting for
change, the government is living it and is now tasked to demonstrate how
they are creating it.
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