Social Innovation Directory Updated

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Patrick Lester

SIRC’s directory has been updated!  The directory includes over 1,000 links to reports and other resources on social innovation and performance issues.  The directory is accessible below and also through links above and to the right.


Issues


Cross-cutting Topics

The directory is updated a few times per year.  For the latest news and resources, consider subscribing to SIRC’s email list (see the top right of this page).

Posted in Uncategorized

Heritage Foundation Endorses Increased Use of Evidence in Budgeting for Trump Administration

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Patrick Lester

The conservative Heritage Foundation, which has been playing a significant role in advising the transition team for the incoming Trump administration, has included a section on evidence-based policymaking in its recently released Blueprint for a New Administration.

The Heritage document was released on November 1, but it has drawn increased attention in recent weeks as the organization’s influence with the incoming administration has grown.

“Part gatekeeper, part brain trust and part boots on the ground, Heritage is both a major presence on the transition team itself and a crucial conduit between Trump’s orbit and the once-skeptical conservative leaders who ultimately helped get him elected,” according to a story from Politico.

The Trump domestic policy transition team is being overseen by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell has long standing ties to Heritage. His transition portfolio includes the Department of Education, Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Health and Human Services.

Heritage is recommending that the Trump administration reinstitute the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), which was used under President George W. Bush to determine whether programs worked and to help justify budget decisions.

The OMB tool had a mixed record during the Bush years. Congress often ignored the administration’s recommendations, particularly during the last two years of the Bush administration (2007-2009) when Congress was controlled by Democrats. With Republicans now in charge, a new PART could have substantially more influence.

Some observers caution, however, that the real role of evidence will not become clear until after the president-elect announces more appointments, including the new OMB director. Two names floated for the position are Gary Cohn, a Goldman Sachs executive, and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC).


Heritage Recommendations

The Heritage Foundation’s evidence recommendations follow below:

Institute Evidence-Based Policymaking.

The next Administration should improve the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) along with a fiscally disciplined, evidence-based review within OMB. PART was an attempt by the Bush Administration to assess the effectiveness of every federal program’s purpose, management, and results. The extremely ambitious PART was a first-of-its-kind attempt to link federal budgetary decisions to performance. President Barack Obama regrettably terminated PART. A revitalized review process would require federal agencies to present OMB with credible evidence on their performance. Budget requests from agencies should be based on their performance, not just desired levels of funding.

The next President can encourage Congress to be more fiscally disciplined by requiring evidence of program efficacy in budget recommendations. Instituting an improved PART and an evidence-based review would help the President pressure Congress to eliminate wasteful spending, and to make federal programs operate as efficiently as possible. Agencies should be required to review programs at intervals no longer than every five years, and require ongoing performance monitoring.

When practiced correctly, evidence-based policymaking would allow policymakers, especially at the OMB, to base funding decisions on empirically rigorous evaluations of program results. Given scarce federal resources, federal policymakers should fund only those programs that have been proven to work.

Leadership is crucial to setting an evidence-based agenda.

  1. The next President needs to send a clear message to the OMB and the entire federal bureaucracy that the West Wing believes evidence-based policymaking should influence budget decisions.
  2. The OMB director needs to develop clear standards for collecting and analyzing evidence of program efficacy for budgetary decision making.

David B. Muhlhausen, “Evidence-Based Policymaking: A Primer,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 3063, October 15, 2015.

David B. Muhlhausen, “Evaluating Federal Social Programs: Finding Out What Works and What Does Not,” testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, July 17, 2013.

David B. Muhlhausen, Do Federal Social Programs Work? (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2013).

Related

Posted in Evidence, Performance Management

Pay for Success, Child Welfare Evidence Provisions Unexpectedly Struck from End-of-Session Bill

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Patrick Lester

Two sets of provisions widely supported by child welfare and evidence advocates have been struck from a pending bill affecting the National Institutes of Health, called “21st Century Cures.”

According to Congressional Quarterly:

Two bills related to foster care and other children’s services that passed the House by voice vote in June were in the medical innovation and mental health package (HR 34) released last Friday, which the House will debate Wednesday. The bills, a priority for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., were struck after senators led by Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., voiced opposition Tuesday when a North Carolina group home organization protested. …

The other bill (HR 5170, S 1089) that was to be in the package would have awarded federal money to state and local governments who could demonstrate that certain social service programs were achieving a beneficial outcome.

According to the report:

Burr’s last-minute objections caught lawmakers in both chambers off guard. Frustrated Democratic aides questioned why leaders in the House didn’t stand up for the welfare provisions, especially because Burr’s steadfast support for the 21st Century Cures effort probably meant that he would have continued to support the bill overall.

“The bill passed the House unanimously in June and Burr never objected when the bill was hotlined in the Senate,” a Democratic Senate aide told CQ. “Republican leaders backed down, despite the fact this bill has support of more than 500 child welfare groups, including Children’s Defense Fund and American Academy of Pediatrics.”

No word yet from congressional staff on whether the provisions might be reinstated in this or another bill before Congress leaves for the year. SIRC will continue to monitor the situation and report any changes.

Related

Posted in Children and Families, Social Impact Bonds / Pay for Success

Pay for Success Legislation Nears Enactment

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Patrick Lester

Update (11/30/16): The pay-for-success provisions have been unexpectedly dropped from the bill. SIRC’s original story follows below.

Federal legislation that would authorize $100 million for pay-for-success projects (dubbed “Social Impact Partnerships”) has been attached to a larger end-of-year bill that is expected to pass in the House this week and the Senate in the next two weeks.

The latest action on similar legislation had come in late May, when the House passed a nearly identical bill (H.R.5170) sponsored by Reps. Todd Young (R-IN) and John Delaney (D-MD).  Separate legislation was introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) in 2015, but it was never acted on.

If it is enacted as expected, the bill would be a nice going away present for Young, who won a race for the Senate in November and will be joining the bill’s Senate co-sponsors in January.


Major Provisions

The legislation tasks the Treasury Department with overseeing the Social Impact Partnership program, although the department may delegate oversight authority for individual projects to other federal agencies. The bill creates a federal interagency council to advise and coordinate with the Treasury Department and a separate appointed commission of experts to assist the interagency council.

Under the bill, the first request for proposals would be issued within a year of  enactment — likely late next year if the bill is enacted by the end of December.  Applications would be restricted to states and local governments, but they would apply on behalf of partnerships that would typically include nonprofit social service providers, intermediaries, evaluators, and philanthropic organizations.

Funding may be provided for projects lasting up to 10 years. However, federal payments will only be made to the state or local governments if the designated independent evaluator has determined that the project has met the requirements specified in the agreement.

Evaluations would need to rely on randomized controlled trials or, where they are not feasible, other methodologies that have been approved by the interagency council that allow for the “strongest possible causal inferences.”

Funds could also be used for feasibility studies. The Social Innovation Fund has been providing funding for that purpose to a number of grantees since 2014.

The full text can be found in Title XXV (p. 943) of the larger bill.

Posted in Social Impact Bonds / Pay for Success

Legislation Promoting Evidence-based Child Welfare Prevention Services Approaches Final Passage

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Patrick Lester

Update (11/30/16): The Families First provisions have been unexpectedly dropped from the bill. SIRC’s original story follows below.

Legislation that would fund evidence-based preventive mental health, substance abuse, or in-home parenting programs for children at risk of entering the child welfare system appears likely to be enacted over the next two weeks, according to the Child Welfare League of America.

An updated version of the Families First Act, which includes the evidence-based provisions, is slated to be attached to a larger bill covering the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration.

The legislation is currently awaiting approval on Tuesday by the House Rules Committee before passage in the full House later this week. The Senate is expected to pass the bill soon afterward, probably by December 9, before sending it to President Obama to be signed into law.

If enacted as expected, the legislation would authorize states to use federal child welfare entitlement (Title IV-E) funds to cover the cost of up to 12 months of the designated preventive services. States would cover half of the costs starting October 1, 2019. The match reverts to existing rates starting in 2025. (See Title XIX, p. 840 for the full bill text.)

The legislation establishes three evidence tiers for eligible services — promising, supported, and well-supported practices.

The Department of Health and Human Services is directed to issue a pre-approved list of services that satisfy the bill’s requirements by October 1, 2018 and to update the list as often as it deems necessary. The legislation also authorizes the creation of a clearinghouse for evaluating research on these services.

Starting October 1, 2019, at least half of the federal share of funding for such services would need to meet the highest (well-supported) evidence standard.

Related

Posted in Children and Families

Woodson Meeting Signals Closer Trump Ties to Ryan on Poverty, Evidence

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Patrick Lester

President-elect Trump today met with Robert Woodson, head of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and a close advisor to House Speaker Paul Ryan on poverty issues.

Ryan has actively supported a Republican vision for addressing poverty as part of a larger GOP plan called A Better Way. It contains numerous evidence-based provisions, including pay for success.

Woodson is being considered for the incoming position of HUD Secretary. According to the Washington Post:

If selected, Woodson, who is black, would add diversity to Trump’s team. And he would be responsible for leading education and social reforms in predominantly African American areas, which Trump repeatedly described during the campaign as “failed” and vowed to repair.

“They seem to be very serious about it,” Woodson, 79, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I’m not job hunting, but we’re talking about how I could possibly work with him. We’re talking about how we could work with those across the aisle to do these things together.”

When asked if Trump officials have specifically discussed a potential Cabinet appointment, Woodson said, “Yes, we’re talking about HUD.”

Woodson is scheduled to meet with Trump on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at the president-elect’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

He added that the House speaker has encouraged him as he heads to New Jersey.

“It’s fair to say that Paul wouldn’t mind having me there to work with them on all of this,” Woodson said with a chuckle.

Congressional staff who are familiar with Ryan’s thinking on poverty and evidence-based policy have consistently pointed to Woodson as a source of personal inspiration for the Speaker.

Related

Posted in Children and Families, Evidence, Politics

What Mid-Size Cities Can Teach Feds About Performance

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Patrick Lester

Early lessons have begun to emerge from the three-year, $42 million effort launched last year by Bloomberg Philanthropies to help 100 mid-sized cities improve their performance through open data, performance management, evaluation, and results-driven contracting.

Continue reading SIRC’s column at Government Executive magazine.

Posted in Data, Government Performance, Performance Management

The Future of Evidence-Based Policy Hangs on the Trump-Ryan Relationship

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Patrick Lester

Like nearly every other aspect of the federal political landscape, prospects for evidence-based policymaking were upended by the stunning results of the 2016 elections.

Pre-election polls had predicted a continuation of divided government, with Democrats winning the presidency and possibly the Senate, while Republicans retained control of the House. Had that occurred, it would have extended the existing partisan gridlock, leaving evidence-based policy among a handful of low-profile issues where the two parties might still find common ground.

Instead, Republicans unexpectedly won control of the presidency while retaining control of Congress, sharply shifting Washington’s center of gravity away from bipartisan consensus and toward a new and uncertain balance between the establishment and populist wings of the GOP.

Continue reading SIRC’s column at Government Executive magazine.

Posted in Evidence, Politics

Will Republicans Keep CMMI After All?

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Patrick Lester

With President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress both elected on a platform of repealing Obamacare, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), which was created by the law, would seem to be a likely target for elimination.

Perhaps not. According to story in CQ-Roll Call, now that it is about to fall into their hands, CMMI may have some appeal.

Republicans, who are now in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, could reshape the center to their own ends.

“I think done right, clearly, innovation is key to making health care affordable and saving Medicare for the long term. But that agency needs real scrutiny,” [Rep.] Brady said.

The center could be used by Republicans to pursue changes in Medicare and Medicaid that they might not be able to do legislatively. At the very least, Republicans want to see how they might make the innovation center more transparent and keep it from doing anything they wouldn’t approve.

Continue reading →

Posted in Health