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The Commerce Department and It's Strategic Plan

Addressing management challenges is a core responsibility of all Commerce professionals, and most of
these challenges are of a level, scope, or resource-intensiveness to be considered as part of ongoing
management tasks. While important, most of these challenges are ones traditionally found in large
organizations implementing complex tasks, and thus may not warrant being termed as "strategic" in the
same sense our program missions are strategic. However, some issues — such as those cited as being
"High Risk" by the General Accounting Office, or as "Material Weaknesses — do warrant special inclusion
In this Strategic Plan, and some are discussed here. Goals, strategies, and objectives for addressing these
challenges are included in the appropriate bureau-specific portions of Chapters 4-6 of the Plan and/or in
bureau operational activities.

Weather Service Modernization

The Weather Service modernization risks identified by GAO include operational effectiveness and maintenance efficiency of observing systems, lack of sound decision making processes, and demonstration that proposed capabilities result in mission improvements.

NOAA is working to ensure the most effective and efficient development and deployment of the new systems which support National Weather Service modernization. NOAA has acted to reduce the occurrence of problems by identifying and implementing modern management, program oversight and systems procurement reforms. NOAA is developing a guiding systems architecture and has issued "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Plan for the Development, Documentation, and Promulgation of the NOAA National Weather System Architecture." Significant progress has been made toward completing the NWS modernization. All of the new radars have been deployed and most of the NWS Automated Surface Observing Systems have been installed. The third software build of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) will be completed and fielded at operational test and evaluation sites this Fall. At the completion of Build 3, approximately 50 percent of the planned AWTPS functionality will be implemented.

Completing the NWS modernization continues to be a very high priority of both the Administration and Congress. NOAA continues to closely monitor the activities of the various contractors and to work closely with the Department of Commerce as these procurements progress. NOAA also continually coordinates with the Office of Management and Budget, Congress, the GAO, and other oversight groups to keep them informed of progress.

Decennial Census

GAO has issued a report on the Decennial Census entitled "2000 Census: Progress Made on Design, But Risks Remain". Among GAO's recommendations in this report were that the Census bureau: provides Congress and other stakeholders with detailed data to meet the objective of full and open disclosure on the expected effects of design proposals on cost, accuracy, and equity, works with Commerce and OMB officials to reach agreement on

The Commerce Policy Framework

25

design and funding levels as soon as possible, in order to make the Dress Rehearsal as useful as possible, and; conducts the Dress Rehearsal to mirror as closely as possible the design features for the full 2000 Census.

The Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce agree with each of those recommendations.
Detailed materials were provided to the Congress regarding: estimated error rates (at the national, State,
Congressional district, census tract, and census block levels); planned statistical methodologies; evaluation
studies from the 1990 census and test results from 1992 to date, and; supporting data related to the 1995
Census Test. Each member of the House and Senate (as well as Census stakeholders, advisory committees,
and the National Academy of Sciences) received a copy of "Report to Congress: The Plan for Census
2000" which included a discussion of sampling and nonsampling issues. Senior Census staff have
provided an ongoing series of briefings for Congress.

The Dress Rehearsal will demonstrate all key activities planned for the full 2000 Census, using procedures and time schedules that mirror the full Census. Results of the test will be shared with all those expressing an interest.

Financial Management

Commerce's financial management systems are inadequate. Our bureaus operate eight financial
management systems, most of which use old, out-of-date software, and are difficult and expensive to
operate. None readily support streamlined administrative and financial processes, or comply fully with the
relevant accounting and Federal financial systems standards. Some inhibit production of financial
statements worthy of unqualified audit opinions. Most important, they fail, individually and collectively,
to provide Commerce managers with the financial management information they need to manage
effectively This, in turn, harms our capacity to manage Commerce's program missions as effectively as
desired.

The Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS) is Commerce's remedy to this cluster of issues. CAMS is to be an integrated financial management system, implemented around a Core Financial System (including Budget Execution, Standard General Ledger, and other vital functions), and linked to key functional administrative systems, such as personal property, travel, and budget formulation. CAMS will depend on a standard set of largely commercial off-the-shelf software, and will comply with relevant accounting and Federal financial system standards. Commerce has acquired a commercial software package for the Core Financial System and is developing or acquiring functional systems. Current plans call for implementing the entire Core Financial Systems plus key functional systems initially at the Bureau of the Census by June 1998, and then proceeding to implement the software in the other bureaus.

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The Commerce Department and It's Strategic Plan

INTERAGENCY LINKAGES ARE A KEY ELEMENT OF OUR

POLICY FRAMEWORK

As the Cabinet agency with the smallest budget, Commerce is aware of the need to secure outside support
In order to ensure that our programs have the maximum impact on the issues we must address on behalf
of the American people. We are firmly committed to reaching out to agencies with complementary
responsibilities and strengthening interagency ties, in order to achieve that maximum impact. The
Chapters in this Plan which provide our goals, strategies, and objectives contain a special section on
Partnerships, and include numerous examples of how our programs are made stronger through
interagency ties. We have also made a conscious decision in developing this Plan to provide objectives
that are specific enough to allow for other agencies to link their own goals and objectives to ours — this
is a feature we have not seen in many other agency strategic plans.

Many of our interagency linkages go beyond single-program-to-single program relationships. Commerce leads and participates actively in critical, policy-level, government-wide initiatives which call on the specialized and leading-edge expertise and resources that we possess, and that are necessary for ensuring success for the Nation in the changing global marketplace, for addressing urgent national needs, and for linking and focusing Federal and private capacities in support of a brighter future. We Chair, or are highly active in, a comprehensive set of organizations including the National Science and Technology Council's crosscutting research and development programs, the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, the Interagency Task Force on Post-Disaster Economic Recovery, the National Oceanographic Research Council, the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, the World Intellectual Property Association, and others.

We also seek to be a leader in interagency efforts to link programs together to focus on the unique needs of small- and medium-sized businesses, and on local communities in need of our products and services. As a result, we are especially active in promoting service delivery methods which stress ease of access and joint implementation, so that businesses and communities receive the information and assistance they need, and that our programs couple with those from related agencies in the most seamless and coordinated manner possible.

In recognition of the critical importance of close, Interagency ties, we fully intend the Plan's description of our program goals and objectives to serve as linking pins with other agencies. Through the specificity of our Plan — rich in information about our programs — we communicate with other agencies and strengthen our mutual abilities to set 'common denominator" objectives and performance measures. Reviews of other agency strategic plans confirm that this is an important next step in interagency Implementation of GPRA.

Within the Department, we link closely and consciously in countless ways — MBDA utilizes ITA support to focus on the needs of minority-owned businesses seeking to export; NIST works closely with PTO on developing patents for inventions created in NIST laboratories; NTIS collects and disseminates Information on the results of other Commerce bureau research; Census and BEA provide Information to other bureaus needing statistical data about domestic and overseas populations and economies; NTIA

works with ITA on developing trade policy regarding telecommunications; NOAA and EDA combine resources to support coastal communities seeking to strengthen their sustainable development capabilities; EDA and NIST work together with communities in using technology as a tool supporting economic development.

COMMUNICATING OUR POLICY FRAMEWORK

This policy framework is a driving force in all of our activities. It shows up in everything that Commerce does, ranging all the way from the Secretary's actions with the President, Congress, and foreign heads of state, down to the day-to-day functioning of Commerce's program experts — our scientists, researchers, economists, statisticians, and other professionals. These same policy concepts provide for a constant and consistent focus throughout the year, reinforced in Congressional testimony and negotiations by the Secretary and bureau heads, in our budget, in our Executive Branch policy setting sessions, in our working with stakeholder groups and members of the public, in our interagency collaborations.

Bureau heads and program managers are responsible for translating this policy framework into action on an ongoing basis, for communicating about it within their bureaus, for tying program actions and decisions to it, and for managing their programs according to it. GPRA and the Commerce Strategic Plan provide the additional opportunity for emphasizing, quite specifically and measurably each bureau's goals and objectives and for Integrating them into a Department-wide whole. Outcome-oriented management is becoming an increasingly widespread practice across the Federal government, and it is being implemented In Commerce as bureaus develop the capacity to do it. For example, NOAA actively uses its set of goals, outcomes, and performance measures to establish internal priorities and develop budget proposals, which are agreed to by program and policy officials, and then implemented quite clearly and with bureau-wide staff buy-in.