NEWS

LMI Participates in Task Force on Changing Nature of Government Service

Run by Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton

MCLEAN, Va. , Nov. 5, 2007—Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs recently convened a blue-ribbon task force to explore how the nature of federal government service for officials with policy responsibility has changed in recent decades, and the implications of those changes for public policy education. The task force is chaired by Paul Volcker and includes LMI Trustee Joseph Nye and Susan Marquis, Vice President of LMI's Resource Management operating unit. It will compile and analyze existing data and issue a report following the 2008 elections to inform the incoming administration and senior government officials.

The task force topic is particularly timely in light of the increased outsourcing of many functions formerly reserved exclusively for government, proliferation of agencies and departments with overlapping functions, greater reluctance of many talented people to make government a career, growing role of the military as the nation's chief operational foreign policy arm, and continuing uncertainty of funding and other resources. In the wake of government failures to anticipate and address recent incidents and events, concern that “government” cannot meet even minimal expectations is widespread and growing. At the same time, individual policymakers and managers must often address extremely contentious and complex issues using tightly constrained resources. 

Other task force members include Richard Haass, Alan Krueger, Nolan McCarty, David Rubenstein, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Allison Stanger, Max Stier, and Lynn Thoman.

LMI, based in McLean, Va., is a not-for-profit government consulting firm established in 1961 at the behest of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Best known for its logistics expertise, LMI’s work now includes acquisition, facilities management, financial management, information technology, and organizations and human capital. Numbered among its clients are Department of Defense organizations and civil agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Postal Service.