Transforming Government to Meet the Challenges and Capitalize on the Opportunities of the 21st Century

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the New School audience in New York, New York on April 25, 2007. To capitalize on our opportunities and minimize related risks, all organizations must be mindful of the big picture and the long view. Organizations that endure tend to periodically rethink their missions and operations. World-class organizations understand that innovation requires change. One must change in order to continuously improve. The simple truth is an organization that stands still today is going to get passed by and, ultimately, it may not survive. I'm going to focus on the long-term challenges facing our nation and the federal government, though many of these issues are relevant to other sectors of society. I'm going to talk about the need for federal agencies to adopt a long-term perspective and transform their organizations and operations to better meet the needs of today and tomorrow. I'm also going to talk about the transformation efforts at my agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). At the start of the 21st century, our country faces a range of sustainability challenges: fiscal, health care, energy, the environment, Iraq, and immigration, to name a few. Unfortunately, our government's track record in adapting to new conditions and meeting new challenges isn't good. Much of the federal government remains overly bureaucratic, myopic, and narrowly focused, clinging to outmoded organizational structures and strategies. Efficient and effective government matters. Transforming government and aligning it with modern needs is even more urgent because of our nation's large and growing fiscal imbalance. Simply stated, America is on a path toward an explosion of debt. And that indebtedness threatens our country's, our children's, and our grandchildren's futures. With the looming retirement of the baby boomers, spiraling health care costs, plummeting savings rates, and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks. To put it simply: our population is aging. Despite increased immigration, growth in the U.S. workforce is expected to slow dramatically during the next 50 years. Like most industrialized nations, the United States will have fewer full-time workers paying taxes and contributing to federal social insurance programs. At the same time, growing numbers of retirees will be claiming their Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. The problem is that in the coming decades, there simply aren't going to be enough full-time workers to promote strong economic growth or to sustain existing entitlement programs.