Who catches the things that slip through the cracks?

January 13, 2009 8:19 AM

How does the U.S. Government follow up on concerns, both chronic and acute?

From injured veterans to chronic tax evaders, is there a standard, tracking and communications center environment for making sure all of these little details get taken care of?

posted by Fuka to law & government (13 comments total)

Each agency has its own procedures.
posted by Pants! at 8:31 AM on January 13

No. Federal Government employee, Department of Defense. Nineteen years service. My agency - a 'subsidiary' of DoD, really - has enormous internal communication issues. We can't even talk amongst ourselves, let alone to talk to our customers and parent organization.

The idea that the FDA and USDA (for example) might somehow coordinate their activities to eliminate duplication and tie up loose ends is a good one, but so far seems unworkable.
posted by fixedgear at 8:35 AM on January 13 [1 favorite]

But what makes it unworkable? Is the issue technical or political in nature?
posted by onhazier at 8:40 AM on January 13

As Pants! suggests, every federal agency is generally responsible for enforcing its own regulations and organic statutes, including the Department of Justice. Justice is essentially an agency like any other whose organic statutes happen to be criminal rather than civil, but the internal operation of the agency is remarkably similar. Just as Justice promulgates regulations interpreting criminal statutes, and even sometimes promulgates regulations defining new offenses* investigates crimes, and prosecutes offenders, the FCC, FDA, FTC, IRS, etc. have their own enforcement bureaus that do similar things. To be sure, only Justice has the capacity to prosecute criminal offenses, and when agencies discover crimes they generally turn the cases over to Justice, but civil offenses may be prosecuted by any agency with relevant jurisdiction.

That being said, there is no clearinghouse where civil violators are tracked. Criminal violators are the exclusive jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, so in a sense there is something like what you're describing for criminal offenders, but civil offenses are independently investigated and prosecuted by the agencies with relevant jurisdiction.

Interagency cooperation is difficult. Aside from your normal jurisdictional pissing contests and political spats, the agencies are largely independent of each other and have distinct cultures, procedures, databases, even IT departments. It may seem inefficient to have duplicative efforts scattered throughout the federal government, and in a sense it is, but the alternative, having a single agency prosecute every type of offense, civil or criminal, would be a task far too large for any single agency to manage. That and the fact that you'd never, ever get Congress to create a bureaucratic monstrosity large enough to prosecute them all.

The hydra-headed approach, with all its inefficiencies, seems to be best.
*When authorized by Congress to do so.
posted by valkyryn at 8:46 AM on January 13

I'm not even talking about prosecution - my actual point of curiosity is this - thousands, even millions of details slip through the cracks every year, whose job is it to remind the various agencies that this item is unresolved?
posted by Fuka at 8:52 AM on January 13

whose job is it to remind the various agencies that this item is unresolved?

No one's.
posted by scody at 8:55 AM on January 13

Is the issue technical or political in nature?

It's both. See failure in intel with respect to 9/11 terrorists. FAA sort of knew, FBI sort of knew, etc., but their was and is no uber-agency to coordinate their activities.

Some of these are what we call 'rice bowl' issues, where agencies protect their turf. For example, as a taxpayer, it would make sense for one agency to gather all the requirements for drugs, and then purchase them at the best possible price from manufacturers. The center that I work at procures drugs for use in DoD hospitals. The VA also buys drugs for use in VA hospitals. This one seems like a no-brainer, DoD and VA in partnership. But the reality is the two agencies are at loggerheads and the impasse is not likely to be resolved soon.
posted by fixedgear at 8:59 AM on January 13

whose job is it to remind the various agencies that this item is unresolved?

The person or people who care that it fell through the cracks.

As an aggregate, the U.S. government is the largest bureaucracy in the history of the world. The waste and general inefficiency is suitably legendary. I doubt any human is even capable of grasping all the interconnections between all of the agencies, much less monitoring them for things getting dropped.

The good thing is that with rare exception there are people in the various agencies who really would like to help you. The problem is to connect with them and convince them that your cause is worthy.
posted by tkolar at 9:35 AM on January 13

I just noticed that one of your tags is 'accountability.' There is the GAO. They underwent a name-but-not-acronym-change, where they morphed from the General Accounting Office to the Government Accountability Office. They still largely perform a number-crunching function, but they also audit the performance of various agencies and programs and make recommendations. While they don't necessarily make sure that nothing falls through the cracks, they do report to Congress and provide suggestions on ways to streamline Government.
posted by fixedgear at 9:36 AM on January 13

For a point of comparison as against fixedgear's pharma procurement example, some countries have attempted to consolidate procurement for common materiel across departments and agencies by having as much of it as is practicable -- which is often, in the end, not very much -- flow through one department (e.g. Public Works and Government Services Canada).
posted by onshi at 9:38 AM on January 13

thousands, even millions of details slip through the cracks every year, whose job is it to remind the various agencies that this item is unresolved?

I had a boyfriend once who was a clerk for a US Senator. They're actually in some ways the squeaky wheel that can help you with your Social Security snafu or your veteran's benefits. They have staff dedicated to working on these sorts of problems.

Scody is right, there is no one who is like "hey are we sure we're caught up on everything" or basically the human equivalent of a tickler file. The people who fell through the cracks are encouraged to contact the agency over and over and, if that fails to lobby their local federal representatives for relief. I was pretty impressed with the amount of attention the senator's office gave to run of the mill "so and so said I'd get my check on this day but it never showed up..." so in some sense they are the problem resolvers though they won't even know a problem exists unless people contact them directly and agitate for a resolution.
posted by jessamyn at 11:42 AM on January 13

I had a boyfriend once who was a clerk for a US Senator. They're actually in some ways the squeaky wheel that can help you with your Social Security snafu or your veteran's benefits. They have staff dedicated to working on these sorts of problems.

We call those 'Congressional Inquiries' regardless of whether they come from a House or Senate member. Jessamyn is right, staffers can and do help constituents navigate the bueaucracy. It's a big part of their job.

The requests run the gamut. In our agency, they tend more to 'my constituent (read large political contributor) is the largest apple grower in the state and wants to know how he can supply his fresh and wholesome apples for troop feeding.' Or 'my constituent was not awarded a contact, even though he was the low offeror. Why?' Our management, who live in perpetual fear of having their budgets cut, drop whatever they are doing to answer these inquiries.
posted by fixedgear at 12:07 PM on January 13

Different departments have different cultures of accountability. IRS, DOL, FCC, FAA tend to be the good ones, off the top of my head. They tend to be quite responsive to concerns.

Ultimately, yes, the Congress is tasked with oversight on the operations of the executive branch (which all of the agencies fall under), so they have the responsibility. And the GAO.
posted by gjc at 5:15 PM on January 13