We Must Safeguard The Taxpayers' Money

• Editor's note: The following commentary is an adaptation of remarks Virginia Sen. Mark Warner made in his first Senate floor speech. Congress' action on the federal budget, combined with the implementation of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, could confirm the claims of skeptics who say Washington simply is not capable of managing taxpayer money responsibly.

I would suggest it also presents a tailor-made opportunity to demonstrate that we have, in fact, managed to combine bold action with innovation and transparency in order to get our unraveling economy back on track.

In my experience in business and as a governor, I have learned this important principle: what gets measured gets done. The American people do not expect miracles. But they can and should expect competence.

So we must put in place the people with the right skills, insist on the appropriate measurements, and demand transparency and accountability.

When I became Virginia's governor at the peak of a recession in 2002, a $6-billion revenue shortfall presented huge challenges to the state's $34-billion budget.

Our new administration made painful spending cuts, and we also took the opportunity to enact long-term budget reforms that continue to save taxpayer dollars today.

WE RENEGOTIATED contracts, eliminated or consolidated dozens of outdated boards and commissions, consolidated our IT services, and restructured Virginia's vehicle fleet and real estate portfolios and started managing them the way any business would.

Our businesslike approach fostered a new culture of government transparency and accountability that resulted in Virginia's designation as the nation's best-managed state and the best state for business.

That same approach -- straight talk, tough choices, and an insistence on common-sense reforms and accountability -- is critically important now as our federal government takes dramatic action to address our current economic challenges.

President Barack Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to oversee implementation of the Recovery Act, and I have been talking with the vice president's office about additional steps we might take to promote transparency and accountability. I believe we have a unique opportunity now to build a solid foundation to further promote overall fiscal responsibility.

For instance, we should drill down and reach consensus on a common set of definitions and metrics that will truly measure our progress and allow us to honestly and effectively track how these dollars are spent.

Consider our dramatically expanded commitment to weatherization improvements to lower-income homes. Certainly, we will tally the number of structures that take advantage of these energy-saving programs, and we can easily document the number of workers hired to perform the work.

BUT COULDN'T we also come up with some way to measure what logically should be a reduction in the annual demand for government-funded heating and cooling assistance? With that information, we could rationally adjust the funds we budget for these programs in the years to come.

I also believe we also might want to consider linking the disbursement of federal funds to specific timelines and checkpoints to ensure that federal programs truly make progress on the goals we have set.

We also need to put more of this information online. The Recovery.gov website was launched with a lot of promise, but, frankly, the level of attention to timely updates appears to have waned. The Recovery.gov page is updated only sporadically, and visitors must navigate away from the site to get anything close to real-time updates.

In addition, while I wholeheartedly support President Obama's pledge of a line-by-line review of the budget in order to root out waste and fraud, I also would encourage him to conduct a review that is horizontal as well as vertical. Based on my experience as governor, I know this could provide opportunities to wring out significant budget savings, especially in three primary areas of government: procurement, technology, and human resources.

THIS MEANS it is vitally important that we move quickly on President Obama's plan to appoint a Chief Performance Officer. And this CPO must have the authority to act quickly, along with the CIO and CTO, with a clear mandate to work across multiple federal agencies to honestly examine competing programs.

In the short term, instilling a culture of efficiency, transparency, and accountability will maximize our bang-for-the-buck as we continue to implement the Recovery Act.

Over the long term, a sharper focus on program metrics, the addition of specialized management expertise, and a renewed commitment to fiscal restraint also will demonstrate that Washington can, in fact, be responsible with the taxpayer's money.