Jennifer Pahlka

GAO gets schooled by the Department of Education The FAFSA team stands up for itself, and for everyone operating in the product model

What happens when a team turns a failure into a dramatic success? Sometimes, their hard work and courage earn them a GAO nastygram. That's because the GAO holds them accountable to the wrong operating model. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/gao-gets-s...

Varieties of Abundance - Niskanen Center We will know that abundance has succeeded when there is a proliferation of “abundances,” different governing projects attached to previously existing ideologies, interests, and parties.

Choose your variety of abundance. It's like having your colors done, but actually useful.
www.niskanencenter.org/abundance-va...

Thank you!!

“As any gardener knows, planting is not the hard part. Gardening is about creating the right conditions: tending and fertilizing the soil, watering, weeding to give seedlings the space they need to grow.

Effective leadership in today’s sclerotic government also requires cultivation”

Better Politicians Weeding is Fundamental

In which I argue that Weeding is Fundamental. :)
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/better-pol...

Per @pahlkadot.bsky.social, “You can’t redistribute what doesn’t exist.”

Successful abundance policies must reduce the barriers that make it hard to access resources AND increase the supply of those resources.

💼 “To transform the operations of the public sector, leaders will need both courage and creativity. Government unions and contractors alike will be uncomfortable." @nytimes.com @robertgo.bsky.social @pahlkadot.bsky.social buff.ly/fS3RQch

You can have government efficiency or you can wage the culture war through administrative policy.

You can't have both.

@gabemenchaca.bsky.social @pahlkadot.bsky.social

by Ann Lewis Ann Lewis The government could replicate some private sector practices that have provided results like digitizing more services.

Government can deliver better digital services—but only if it adopts the right operating model. Our new piece at @niskanencenter.bsky.social with @pahlkadot.bsky.social explains why moving from projects to products is the path to services that actually work. www.niskanencenter.org/the-product-...

The President Accounts : Bureau of Accounts, U.S. Treasury : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive On government accounting practices affecting money spent on unemployment relief. President Roosevelt addresses Congress, unemployed men work on relief jobs,...

The President Accounts. A 1939 film by The Government. Newly available in the public domain. archive.org/details/FedF...

Bay Area people: I'll be in SF on June 24th and would love to see you at Mannys!

www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening...

"I no longer believe that incremental fixes are enough."

I get very excited when leaders like Seemay make big, bold moves like this. More of this, please!

Opinion | The Abundance Agenda Has Its Own Theory of Power

This is an excellent explanation of the politics of Abundance, and how it relates to the populist left. Must read.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/o...

San Francisco wants to use AI to save itself from bureaucracy City Attorney David Chiu is working with Stanford to identify and delete old, redundant municipal code sections.

www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

"San Francisco’s municipal code runs about the same length...as 75 “Moby Dick"s and counting. No lawyer, or even a team of them, could ever muck out all the redundant and outdated sections contained in it. So City Attorney David Chiu is calling in Stanford’s AI experts to help him out."

What DOGE didn't do Sustainable change comes from changing rules and procedures, not just ignoring them

Just like Congress in the 90s, DOGE ate dessert first. The meal is yet to be served. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/what-doge-...

What DOGE didn't do Sustainable change comes from changing rules and procedures, not just ignoring them

More on what they should have done here: www.eatingpolicy.com/p/what-doge-...

What DOGE didn't do Sustainable change comes from changing rules and procedures, not just ignoring them

Great read from @pahlkadot.bsky.social as Musk leaves DOGE www.eatingpolicy.com/p/what-doge-.... We have similar problems in the UK government and need action to fix them

The wise @pahlkadot.bsky.social uses this slide with "Hill staffers who ask me what they should do to improve the performance of an underperforming agency." The key contrast is "something is wrong with these people" vs. "something is wrong with this system." Friction-fixers are system-fixers!

Work requirements are welfare for Deloitte.

And all of a sudden, the House has a bipartisan Build America caucus!

Building a law of abundance The artificial scarcity plaguing our economy is deeply rooted in a "law of constraint" built over half a century. How do we unwind it?

OK, we've imagined the Abundance omelet. Now, which eggs should we break, and how? That analysis must begin with a grasp on how the law promotes scarcity and where legal tools can crack it. It also reveals the bigger-than-Democrats dimension to this. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/building-a...

No, it won't do that. It can't do that. But also what CAN do that short of Dems winning back power?
In the meantime, we should preserve the remaining capacity of the agencies for meaningful work.

That was very generous of Marc to name me!

This was a great piece. @pahlkadot.bsky.social gives a measured, reasonable assessment of DOGE’s approach while I scream internally.

Why the Paperwork Reduction Act needs to go, Part 2 We're the only country that has tried to reduce burden this way, and it hasn't worked. Especially with capacity being gutted, we should learn from what the rest of the world is doing.

The global view of the Paperwork Reduction Act: We're the only country that does this. It doesn't work. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-the-pa...

I think the question is what work is top priority for public servants in this moment. If we want them to keep jumping through hoops that make delivering on the mission harder, despite a huge cut in staff, then no, let it stand. If we care about the outcomes the public counts on, then it should be.

Why the Paperwork Reduction Act needs to go, Part 1 If we have fewer federal workers, we'd better choose what's most important for them to do. A law that keeps us locked into nineties era paperwork should be first on the chopping block.

If agencies are going to have to make do with dramatically fewer staff, is compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, which does not reduce paperwork, a priority? We'll need to make choices; we should choose what's most meaningful to the mission.
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-the-pa...

Opposite is not a winning strategy Dems need alternatives whose strength comes from a positive vision of what to do, not defined by what not to do.

Opposite mode doesn't work. There has to be a positive vision for a government that works. www.eatingpolicy.com/p/opposite-i...

Truman's Bureaucrats Paperwork reduction before the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Another brilliant must-read from Kevin Hawickhorst, this time on how we used to manage forms in federal government, a far better way than the Paperwork Reduction Act requires. www.statecapacitance.pub/p/trumans-bu...

Stand by for more great PRA content this week!