Advocating Excellence and Investing in Management
The Federal Managers Association’s (FMA) primary objectives are to advocate excellence in public service through effective management and professionalism, and to actively represent our members’ interests and concerns.
There are two primary components to this: investing in the federal workforce and promoting management as an occupation. Our legislative agenda for 2021 reflects those foundational underlying goals. This year we have a focus on stability and removing uncertainty for managers across the federal government.
Uncertainty manifests in several different ways that impact managers, one of which is the use of continuing resolutions to fund the government. FMA is dismayed by the lack of regular order in recent years with regard to the basic function of funding the government. There has not been a year without at least one continuing resolution (CR) in this millennium. In 2007, 2011, and 2013, Congress relied instead on inefficient and costly CRs for the entire year.
Enormous stress is placed on federal programs when continuing resolutions, instead of traditional appropriations measures, are used to fund operations. Agencies are prevented from obtaining the necessary resources required to handle rising workloads. Budget uncertainty forces managers and supervisors to focus more on short-term operations and less on their core missions, impeding efficiency and ultimately costing the government and American taxpayers significantly more money in the long run. It results in egregious costs and wastes, and it takes significant time and resources for agencies to prepare for and recover from a shutdown.
The overreliance on continuing resolutions, and the threat of government shutdowns, severely inhibits agencies’ abilities to anticipate funding levels and allocate resources in an effective fashion to boost productivity and the delivery of services. Providing agencies with timely and adequate budgets is the only course of action to prevent these avoidable challenges.
Those who enter the federal workforce often note a greater calling to serve their fellow Americans and their country. Civil servants continually show dedication to carrying out their congressionally-mandated missions and goals for the benefit of the nation at home and abroad. Their daily work often goes unnoticed, taken for granted, or worse, maligned by the public and some members of Congress.
FMA urges members of Congress to realize the value of investing in these hard-working men and women across the country. To maintain a federal workforce that meets the needs of the American public, the government must continue to invest in personnel reforms that will allow agencies to fill key positions throughout all ranks. FMA stands behind civil servants who perform invaluable work on a daily basis without fanfare and who have dedicated their lives to ensuring the success of vital government programs. Toward that end, FMA fights for reasonable and fair pay and benefits, reflective of the duties federal managers perform. Our legislative agenda illustrates a commitment to fostering a work environment that will enable agencies to recruit and retain the best and the brightest to civil service for the benefit of the entire country.
FMA is committed to working with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, and the Biden administration, to promote commonsense initiatives and deliver on the promise to provide American taxpayers with unparalleled service.
The column part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
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