Reform
Government Shutdowns: What They Actually Cost
Shutdowns are not furloughs without consequence — the measured bill includes back pay for work not done, lost user fees, and economic drag that a reopening does not refund.
James Wellington
Reform
Accounts of attempts to remake public bodies: mergers, devolution, staffing overhauls and shared service centers. Each piece records the case made for the change, the money spent, and the measurable result several years later. Written for officials planning reorganizations and for the auditors who eventually assess them.
Coverage of agency restructuring, staffing changes and machinery-of-government moves, including what each reorganization cost and what it solved.
Reform
BRAC: The Base-Closure Model Reformers Keep Citing, Explained
The Defense base realignment and closure process closed hundreds of installations with less paralysis than any other consolidation tool — because it took the vote away from Congress.
Valentina Sokolov
Reform
Inspector General Vacancies: What Changes When the Watchdog Seat Is Empty
An office without a Senate-confirmed inspector general keeps auditing, but its referrals slow, its subpoenas soften, and its independence becomes an acting arrangement.
Valentina Sokolov
Reform
Sunset Commissions: How States Delete Their Own Agencies
Roughly half the states run agencies on expiration dates, and the mechanism quietly decides more about government's shape than most elections do.
Valentina Sokolov
Reform
Shared Services Centers: What Twenty Years Actually Delivered
The federal government's long experiment in consolidating back-office work cut some costs, stranded some agencies, and left a marketplace that still runs on handshakes.
Valentina Sokolov