State of the Union

Excerpt from A President's Manifesto by James A. George (c)2019 All Rights Reserved

State of the Union


I had an epiphany after writing the first draft of this book. It goes back to an earlier book, Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy, (c) 2010 Wiley Publishing. In that work, Dr. Rodger and I advocated the creation of a “U.S. President's Performance Management Dashboard.” The dashboard would provide performance metrics, aggregated from all of the programs and service initiatives under the Departments and Agencies of government such that the President and Congress can see metrics at any level that they desire. It is absurd that the federal government doesn't have such a thing already, but it doesn't.


If it did, then the State of the Union would be readily available for all to see at any point in time (in real time). The epiphany part is that the State of the Union report from Presidents is probably not delivered always at the right time. The U.S. Constitution is casual about it. "The formal basis for the State of the Union Address is from the U.S. Constitution: The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3, Clause 1.


Historically, it has been an annual message, of a sort. Think about it. A new President arrives in January. Would it not have been useful to have a State of the Union report from a credible system having been delivered, say in the prior October, before the national election? That way voters can evaluate the past performance and understand the stepping stone to the next administration.


The US Federal government fiscal year is from October to September. The next government could be a continued incumbency for a second term. Or, it could be a new presidency. The dashboard and its metrics would be inherited for the next incumbent to assume control to produce new metrics. Having a standard system and approach would ensure continuity in accountability. That does not mean that the dashboard would not change. In fact, the contents would reflect the actions of the Executive branch and Congress at changing and amending legislation, funding, and schedules. Otherwise, it must be dynamic and accountable for real-time results.


A Presidential Dashboard as envisioned is a management tool for which the results are the U.S. Government Performance that should be available and accessible by Congress and the citizens with some caveats particular to national security. Unlike government audits that are rear view-mirror-facing, an executive management system must have forward planning and controls, including simulation and predictive performance capabilities. Embracing the idea that the federal government is an automated regulatory environment is a context for systems engineering.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu/

From this, we truly don't know the current condition.