O’Melveny’s Sallet Authors Paper on Streamlining Government, Boosting Innovation and Competitiveness

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Paper's Proposals Dovetail President Obama’s Plan for Government Reorganization

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Piper Hall                                                       Sonja Steptoe

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WASHINGTON, DC JANUARY 19, 2012 ─ Building on President Obama’s proposed plan announced last week to reduce redundancies within our federal government and improve efficiencies, O’Melveny & Myers LLP partner Jonathan Sallet has co-authored a paper proposing additional steps, most notably a reconstituted agency to replace the Commerce Department, to foster greater innovation and competitiveness in the US economy, and streamline government further.  The paper, "Rewiring the Federal Government for Competitiveness: A New Cabinet Department for the 21st Century," was written by Sallet, co-leader of O’Melveny’s Public Policy and Political Strategy Practice Group and a former Director of the Commerce Department's Office of Policy and Strategic Planning in the Clinton Administration, and Sean Pool, a Center for American Progress (CAP) Scholar and Assistant Editor of Science Progress as part of a set of packaged policy proposals released today by CAP.

Specifically, Sallet’s proposal transfers significant functions out of the current Commerce Department to other parts of the executive branch and brings into the agency competitiveness-related functions from other Departments and renames the agency the Department of Competitiveness. The authors write: “For American companies and workers to compete globally, we must rewire our government infrastructure to more effectively focus on innovation and competitiveness.”

“Combining existing agencies into one will be more efficient and more effective; costing taxpayers less while empowering our national competitiveness,” said Sallet.

If you are interested in speaking with Sallet regarding the paper's proposals and the larger conversation on federal government streamlining, efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness, please contact Piper Hall or Sonja Steptoe at the email addresses and phone numbers listed above.

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The Center for American Progress Recently Issued the Following Press Release:
 

RELEASE: Streamlining Government and Boosting Innovation to Restore U.S. Economic Competitiveness
 

Washington, D.C. — Today the Center for American Progress released a packaged set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to help the United States retain its economic and innovation leadership and ensure all Americans have the opportunity to prosper and flourish now and well into the 21st century.

Innovation is the engine that drives economic growth in the United States. Economists believe that innovation—new technologies, products, processes, and the industries they create—is responsible for between half and 80 percent of all economic growth. The United States once was the unquestioned global leader in innovation, but our lead is beginning to erode.

Other countries have followed in our footsteps and in some cases gone even further to invest specifically in the interrelated building blocks of a high-performance innovation engine. Our nation now lags others on key metrics such as educational attainment, scientific literacy, research and development, and infrastructure investment.

“Competitiveness is about building an economy that’s fit for the 21st century in a world where we’re competing and trying to win with new competitors each and every day,” said Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress. “It’s also about building an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. Our latest package of proposals delivers on that vision.”

Last week the Obama administration announced a proposal to reorganize federal agencies to create a focus on innovation and competitiveness. The new CAP paper series further explores the idea of government agency reorganization, as well as other building blocks of national competitiveness including a proposed “common application” to streamline the interface for small businesses in need of federal assistance, improvements to federal innovation statistics systems, high-skill workforce development, and university-driven technology innovation.

Read the papers in this series:

•           Rewiring the Federal Government for Competitiveness by Jonathan Sallet and Sean Pool

•           Universities in Innovation Networks by Krisztina “Z” Holly

•           Building a Technically Skilled Workforce by Louis Soares and Stephen Steigleder

•           Economic Intelligence by Andrew Reamer

•           Immigration for Innovation by Marshall Fitz

Related resources from the Center for American Progress:

•           Column: Obama’s Government Reform Plan: Organizing Business and Trade Agencies for Competition by John Podesta

•           Press Statement: John Podesta on the Administration’s Plan to Ensure Economic Competitiveness

To speak with an expert on this topic, contact Katie Peters at 202.741.6285 or kpeters1@americanprogress.org.

The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

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