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CHAPTER 2

WHAT COMMERCE IS ALL ABOUT

In his 1996 State of the Union message, the President said: "Now we move to an age of technology, information, and global competition. These changes have opened vast new opportunities, but they have also presented us with stiff challenges." The Vice-President sounded a similar call: "Americans also understand that in a global economy, the only way to maintain America's competitive edge is to lead the world in innovation and new technologies. Investments in science and technology mean better jobs, higher wages, and a growing economy." In the 1997 State of the Union address, the President said: "Over the last four years, we have brought new economic growth by investing in our people, expanding our exports, cutting our deficits, creating over 11 million new jobs, a four-year record... We face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy. The enemy of our time is inaction." He continued: "To prepare America for the 21st century, we must harness the powerful forces of science and technology to benefit all Americans."

These words help to make clear the role of the Commerce Department: to help keep America as the world's technology leader, to help American companies compete globally, to enable communities to conquer economic challenges, to stimulate the growth of high-pay, high-quality jobs, to preserve and protect the environment and our natural resources as well as safeguarding the public from environmental changes, and to provide information vital for good business and policy decisions.

Commerce promotes and expedites American exports, helps nurture business contacts abroad, protects our firms from unfair foreign competition, and makes how-to-export information accessible to small- and mid-sized companies throughout the nation so that market opportunities span the globe.

Commerce encourages development in every community, by clearing the way for private sector growth by building or rebuilding economically deprived and distressed communities. We promote minority entrepreneurship to establish businesses that frequently anchor neighborhoods and create new job opportunities. We work with the private sector to enhance competitive assets.

As the nation looks to revitalize our industries and communities, Commerce works as a partner with private entities to build America with an eye on the future. So through technology, research and development, and innovation, we are making sure America is on the winning side.

Commerce's considerable information capacities help businesses understand clearly where our national and world economies are going, and to take advantage of that knowledge by planning the road ahead. Armed with this information, businesses can undertake the new ventures, investments, and expansions that make our economy grow.

The capacity for managing the nation's assets and resources is another key policy driver for Commerce, an essential one in our ability to help the nation succeed in the future. These activities -- ranging from protecting our fisheries to controlling the radio frequency spectrum to protecting intellectual property -- affect the economy directly.

A key element of our policy framework is a concern for the necessary management underpinnings of our programs -- it is essential to integrate the process of enunciating and setting policy, with the process directing programs effectively. Federal agencies, including Commerce, devote considerable resources in program direction activities, and they must have a role in this Strategic Plan. Successful policy development and program implementation rest on our capacity to:

o enunciate Administration and Departmental policy clearly, and integrate policy direction with program operations effectively;

o ensure the highest level of customer service for users of Commerce programs and products, and;

o provide the most forward-looking management practices and systems for the support and delivery of Commerce programs.

These functions are shared responsibilities of our bureaus and our executive-level offices. As such, they cut across all bureau and program lines, and have varying implementation implications. The priorities and performance measures associated with these functions are embedded in our bureau goals and objectives, and operational activities for them are contained in our annual budget documents.

MEETING MAJOR MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES

We believe that the purpose of the Commerce Strategic Plan is to focus attention on our program missions, to explain their importance, and to make clear how we are pursuing our responsibilities under them. At the same time, we are mindful -- every day -- of the complex management challenges that must be met in designing and implementing programs that are national, or worldwide, in scope.

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 AWIPS 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 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.

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.

WHAT'S IN OUR STRATEGIC THEMES

The Mission Statement and three Strategic Themes -- our support of the nation's economic infrastructure, our science, technology, and information activities, and our programs directed at America's resources and assets -- will be discussed in detail in Chapters 4-6 of this Strategic Plan. However, this overview chapter provides a summary of the Commerce Strategic Themes and a brief discussion of how they are linked.

Theme 1 addresses the nation's "economic infrastructure", a term which is defined broadly in the Strategic Plan, because of Commerce's comprehensive mandates. In Theme 1, Commerce is concerned with issues surrounding our domestic and international trading capacities, our nation's job-creation abilities, our support for minority business, our leading technological innovation and improvements in production (and our protection of those new ideas), the economic health of our communities, our production capacities, our information infrastructure, and our providing environmental predictions (essential to protecting life and property).

The issues underlying Theme 2 have grown in importance as science and technology have become increasingly pervasive in our society. Under Theme 2, we set national policy and examine issues of technological development and innovation, conduct the scientific studies and data analysis leading to longer-range environmental predictions, provide information-based support to domestic business/research and international trade (ranging from the census to specific market analyses), focus on the radio frequency spectrum and the technological ways in which broadcasting is conducted, and conduct scientific and technical research in support of National needs.

Theme 3 encompasses several of our responsibilities for the management of resources and assets. Under a series of legislative mandates (as well as references in the U.S. Constitution), Commerce has both direct management responsibilities for specific national resources, and stewardship responsibilities to ensure the optimal use of national assets. For example, Theme 3 focuses on one hand on intangible resources and assets -- we grant access rights to intellectual property and to portions of the radio frequency spectrum. Within Theme 3, Commerce has direct responsibilities for fishery management activities, recovering protected species, and the wise use and development of coastal resources. Also under this Theme, we are concerned with the assets presented by closed military bases, and how best those assets can be converted for effective use by the local communities.

Collectively, the three Strategic Themes encompass the full breadth of the Department of Commerce's mission, but the organization of bureau activities under each of the Themes represents a new approach to linking these activities to the Departmental mission. In some cases, placement of program goals under a specific theme cuts across bureau lines. In other cases, programs making several principal contributions are cited under more than one Theme. For example, the Advanced Technology Program (NIST) can be listed under Theme 1 because its grants support the expansion of the economic infrastructure, but it also can be listed under Theme 2 because it focuses on technological innovation. Similarly, the content and application of patentable new scientific and technological discoveries fall under Theme 2. However, the protection of the rights to this intellectual property -- an important asset -- make these programs an equal candidate for Theme 3.

To pursue the Commerce mission, and to ensure the success of the three Strategic Themes, we need new insights, new information, and application of new technology, all brought together in a unique way. As America moves into the 21st century, the capabilities and services delivered by the Department will be key to our domestic security and global competitiveness. Commerce is the only Federal department whose existing structure encourages the integration of economics, trade, environmental stewardship, technology and information. The integrated whole is greater, and far more powerful on behalf of the Nation, than the sum of its parts.

The Themes within the Commerce Strategic Plan create a setting for identifying and capitalizing on relationships among bureaus, and on partnerships with other agencies and external parties. The Plan supports the concept that strong working relationships will serve to strengthen the effectiveness of the Department as a whole, as well as demonstrate how individual bureaus logically and critically support the core mission of the Department. Ultimately, the overall performance of the Commerce Department must be measured in terms of the contributions of its component bureaus.

The Commerce Strategic Plan provides the framework for a focus on strengthening existing (and for developing new) relationships among bureaus and with external partners. Success for Commerce programs in the changing technological world and global economy will depend increasingly on this type of collaboration, as well as on alliances with business and industry, universities, state and local governments, and international parties. Partnerships promote the leveraging of resources and talent, and often provide the means for meeting program requirements more effectively because of the mutual benefit involved. Partnerships will also be key to implementing the GPRA, to help establish performance measures or goals where one agency may lack complete authority or jurisdiction over the circumstances, activities, or policies which could lead to a particular outcome. By establishing partnerships with other agencies or entities, shared outcomes become more achievable, and broader societal goals can be met more effectively.

INDEX TO OUR THEMES, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES

The table below illustrates the relationship between our three Strategic Themes and the bureau goals contained within each one. This Index is provided for users of the Plan which have specific interest in tracking Commerce bureaus on an individual basis, or interest in focusing on the bureau content of the individual Themes.

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