RELATED October 12, 2023 James-Christian Blockwood’s statement for the House Committee on Administration Subcommittee on Modernization, “Legislative Branch Advancement: GAO Modernization” August 16, 2023 Presidential Transitions are a Perilous Moment for National Security May 31, 2023 The State of Public Trust in Government 2023 Back to Reports Unrealized Vision: Reimagining the Senior Executive Service August 20, 2009 Thirty-one years ago, as part of the most sweeping civil service reforms in more than a century, Congress created the Senior Executive Service (SES) to provide a unified, government-wide cadre of federal career executives with shared values, a broad perspective and solid leadership skills. This leadership corps, reformers believed, would move across agencies, bring their expertise and strategic thinking to a range of difficult issues and problems, and operate under a uniform and performance-based pay system. Today’s Senior Executive Service, however, only vaguely reflects and demonstrates this vision. The Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton decided to study the SES, to examine to what extent it has achieved its original goals and is keeping up with the times, to see if there are impediments to its success, and to determine if changes should be made to improve the management of government. The primary finding is that the Senior Executive Service as envisioned by reformers has fallen short of its promise. More importantly, the report found that the original vision itself is inadequate for today’s needs and does not provide the blueprint to build the kind of senior government leadership required for the future. Download (666k)