1 / 11

Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat

Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat. Roger L. King William L. Giles Distinguished Professor. Background. Associate Director-Research, GeoResoures Institute, (www.gri.msstate.edu)

toshi
Download Presentation

Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat Roger L. King William L. Giles Distinguished Professor

  2. Background • Associate Director-Research, GeoResoures Institute, (www.gri.msstate.edu) • Director, National Consortium on Remote Sensing in Transportation - Environmental Assessments (www.ncrste.msstate.edu) • Director, Computational Geospatial Technologies Center, (www.erc.msstate.edu/geotech) • Chief Engineer, Remote Sensing Technologies Center - (www.rstc.msstate.edu)

  3. Invitation from NASA HQ • Chief Technologist - Earth Science Enterprise Applications Division • Senior technical and policy advisor • Intergovernmental Personnel Assignment (IPA) • 100% buyout of time + travel + living expenses

  4. How to avoid being shot by a sniper or ran over by a white van.

  5. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Office of Management and Budget • President’s budget request • On mission - very powerful Budget Examiners • tax cuts, deficit spending, less than robust economy, war - It’s not the 90s • 3 year process • In FY 03 while I was in Washington • FY 04 budget set by OMB and sent to Hill • FY 05 submitted to OMB for review • FY 06 on the horizon

  6. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Congress reacts to President’s budget • Horse trading by House and Senate • Earmarks, plus ups, Congressionally mandated projects • General stance on them by Executive Branch is they deter from the management of a balanced budget process and make it more difficult to be accountable to taxpayers.

  7. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Earmarks, plus ups, Congressionally mandated projects • Reality • Some agencies will work a priori with recipients of projects to align their request with agency mission • Some agencies refuse to discuss projects

  8. Why is it that in Washington if you are asked to organize a meeting that you're not high enough to speak at it? • Planning Committee, Commercial Remote Sensing: Improving the International Business Environment - May 2003 • Earth Observation Summit - G8 Agenda • Washington is very much about who you are (i.e., What is your position in the government?). • Unless someone knows who you are, don’t look for answers to emails and voice mails.

  9. Can I affect the budget process? • Maybe • President’s budget • By going to Washington and working from within the system to effect change • Having good connections within an agency • Not near term funding, but it can be sustainable

  10. Can I affect the budget process? • Congressional budget • Congressionally mandated projects • This is 1 year money (i.e., it requires the delegation to put this money back into an agency’s budget on an annual basis) • Can give the state and university a “bad name” within the Executive branch if it is taken to excess

  11. Questions?

More Related