In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Government Performance and Results Act, which required all agencies to develop mission statements, long-range strategic plans, and annual performance goals, together with descriptions of the measures to be used to gauge progress toward those goals. Initiated by Republican legislators and signed by a Democratic president, the act enjoyed bipartisan support.12 In 2004, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the federal government’s venerable General Accounting Office was rechristened the Government Accountability Office.
