We’re now eleven months into the new millennium, and people are still making--or possibly revising--their individualized “new looks” for the millennium, based on new approaches such as “work out more often” or, on an opposite track, “eat more foods that I like rather than foods that are good for me.”

One might say that USDA’s latest Strategic Plan has also taken on a “new look,” starting with 2000.

First, some background. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 required federal departments and agencies to evaluate their performance in terms of outcomes--spelled “results”-- instead of concentrating on output, such as through the number of widgets made or the amount of dollars spent.

“The 'Results Act,’ as it is known, has ushered in a whole new way of measuring performance in the federal government,” affirmed Matt Faulkner, the performance management team leader with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer who served as project manager of the Departmentwide Planning Team, which developed USDA’s latest Strategic Plan.

“The key point in this whole procedure,” he added, “is that we in the federal government are all being asked to provide satisfactory answers to the question 'What are the taxpayers getting for the money they spend on the federal government?’”

To accomplish the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act, the law set up a timetable for implementation of its provisions. The law was passed in 1993, but it gave federal departments and agencies four years--until September 30, 1997--to develop five-year 'strategic plans’ which show specifically how they plan to accomplish their intended “results” or “outcomes.” Those five-year strategic plans went into effect in FY 1997--and were supposed to accomplish their goals five years later in 2002.

The June-July 1997 issue of the USDA News carried a story about the Department’s preparation for the Government Performance and Results Act and strategic plans.

Faulkner said the strategic plans had--and still have--a direct impact on USDA employees at headquarters and field locations and at agricultural posts overseas. “Strategic plans weren’t intended to merely meet a legislative requirement and then be relegated to an office shelf,” he observed. “The intent of the law was that strategic plans would be used as a management tool, resulting in program and management accountability.”

USDA had submitted its first five-year Strategic Plan, as required, in 1997, to cover the period of fiscal years 1997 to 2002.

“But then we took another look at our approach and determined that we wanted to restructure our five-year Strategic Plan around five overall USDA goals that often cross jurisdictional lines within the Department,” he advised. Up to that point, he explained, the USDA-wide Strategic Plan consisted of taking the individual agency-specific strategic plans from each USDA program agency and staff office and, in effect, binding them together in one big tome.

Accordingly, starting in January 1999 USDA personnel involved in this process began preparing the Department’s revised Strategic Plan. Faulkner described this as a “corporate management approach to strategic planning.” A new component of this approach was the creation of a Departmentwide Planning Team, which included representatives from each USDA mission area and staff office. The Planning Team ultimately developed five goals.

“The efforts of all USDA program agencies and offices--and, in turn, the efforts of all USDA employees--were to be aimed at accomplishing at least one if not more of those goals,” he noted.

Those five goals were:

1. Expand Economic and Trade Opportunities for U.S. Agricultural Producers.
2. Promote Health by Providing Access to Safe, Affordable, and Nutritious Food.
3. Maintain and Enhance the Nation’s Natural Resources and Environment.
4. Enhance the Capacity of All Rural Residents, Communities, and Businesses to Prosper.
5. Operate an Efficient, Effective, and Discrimination-Free Organization.

OCFO program analyst Cathy Cronin, who served as a member of the Departmentwide Planning Team, noted that USDA’s latest five-year Strategic Plan is a 103-page document, compared to the 525 pages of its predecessor. “Instead of the approach of our previous Strategic Plan, which consisted of 30 different agency plans put together in a binder,” she added, “the new Strategic Plan is more simplified, is written in plain language, and more clearly reflects a 'one-USDA’ approach to performance management.”

Secretary Dan Glickman emphasized that point in the transmittal letter dated September 29, 2000 which he sent to President Bill Clinton, along with a copy of USDA’s Five-Year Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2000-2005. In it he noted that “the work of USDA often cuts across jurisdictional lines--both within USDA and among Federal agencies.”

Faulkner pointed out that the Department’s latest Strategic Plan is accessible on USDA’s web site at http://www.usda.gov/ocfo

“USDA’s Strategic Plan,” Faulkner affirmed, “should be a management tool to help you do your job.”