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Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat

Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat. Roger L. King William L. Giles Distinguished Professor. Background. Associate Director-Research, GeoResoures Institute, (www.gri.msstate.edu)

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Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat

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  1. Lessons Learned from a Year as a Washington Bureaucrat Roger L. King William L. Giles Distinguished Professor

  2. Background • Associate Director-Research, GeoResoures Institute, (www.gri.msstate.edu) • Director, National Consortium on Remote Sensing in Transportation - Environmental Assessments (www.ncrste.msstate.edu) • Director, Computational Geospatial Technologies Center, (www.erc.msstate.edu/geotech) • Chief Engineer, Remote Sensing Technologies Center - (www.rstc.msstate.edu)

  3. Invitation from NASA HQ • Chief Technologist - Earth Science Enterprise Applications Division • Senior technical and policy advisor • Intergovernmental Personnel Assignment (IPA) • 100% buyout of time + travel + living expenses

  4. How to avoid being shot by a sniper or ran over by a white van.

  5. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Office of Management and Budget • President’s budget request • On mission - very powerful Budget Examiners • tax cuts, deficit spending, less than robust economy, war - It’s not the 90s • 3 year process • In FY 03 while I was in Washington • FY 04 budget set by OMB and sent to Hill • FY 05 submitted to OMB for review • FY 06 on the horizon

  6. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Congress reacts to President’s budget • Horse trading by House and Senate • Earmarks, plus ups, Congressionally mandated projects • General stance on them by Executive Branch is they deter from the management of a balanced budget process and make it more difficult to be accountable to taxpayers.

  7. OMB vs. Congress - Who has the real power? • Earmarks, plus ups, Congressionally mandated projects • Reality • Some agencies will work a priori with recipients of projects to align their request with agency mission • Some agencies refuse to discuss projects

  8. Why is it that in Washington if you are asked to organize a meeting that you're not high enough to speak at it? • Planning Committee, Commercial Remote Sensing: Improving the International Business Environment - May 2003 • Earth Observation Summit - G8 Agenda • Washington is very much about who you are (i.e., What is your position in the government?). • Unless someone knows who you are, don’t look for answers to emails and voice mails.

  9. Can I affect the budget process? • Maybe • President’s budget • By going to Washington and working from within the system to effect change • Having good connections within an agency • Not near term funding, but it can be sustainable

  10. Can I affect the budget process? • Congressional budget • Congressionally mandated projects • This is 1 year money (i.e., it requires the delegation to put this money back into an agency’s budget on an annual basis) • Can give the state and university a “bad name” within the Executive branch if it is taken to excess

  11. Questions?

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