Trim Bureaucracy with a Scalpel not a Chainsaw

Efficiency Begins with the Functional Organization Chart

The workers who actually provide public services should never be required to justify their jobs. Their managers must.

Every agency and every department should be defined by what it is supposed to do — not how many people it employs. The first step in achieving this is to create a functional organization chart that reflects the mission and actual functions of each unit within the government — not its structure, not its payroll, and not its hierarchy.

Once that functional organizational chart is established, it becomes immediately clear where overlap, duplication, and inefficiency exist. Consolidation becomes not just possible, but obvious. Every agency and every department within an agency of government at any level is defined in terms of its mission and function rather than its staffing.

Accountability and Responsibility

Once a proper functional organization chart is in place, accountability becomes enforceable. The people responsible for decisions can be identified — and held to account.

Public service workers do what they’re told, using only the tools they are given. It is not their job to fix management failure.

When services are not provided, the fault lies with leadership — not the front line workers. Success should be recognized and rewarded. Failure should have consequences — not for the staff doing the work, but for the managers giving the orders.

The Administrative State

The Congress and a succession of presidents starting with Franklin Delano Roosevelt have allowed federal administrative agencies to become a fourth branch of government which usurps the power of the Congress, the President, and the Judiciary.

Since World War II, whenever a political need arose, Congress responded by creating some new department or administrative agency — rather than reform, reorganize or repurpose an existing one. This impulse has produced a sprawling, layered and morbidly obese administrative state that duplicates itself at every level of government, from Washington to the smallest towns.

The result is more management, more separation between decision-makers and service providers, and steadily declining efficiency.

DHS—A Faltering Step in the Right Direction

Recognizing the tragic intelligence and communications failures that allowed the 9/11 attacks to succeed, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to fix the problem. But instead of integration, it became a collection of fiefdoms under one roof.

Each agency retained its own legacy systems, management, and silos. Rather than streamline, it layered more bureaucracy on top of what already existed—without clarity, coordination, or accountability.

The American Intelligence Community

Eighteen separate agencies form the U.S. Intelligence Community. Some report to the Director of National Intelligence. Some don’t. Each claims a unique mission. None claim full accountability.

Despite decades of growth, coordination among these agencies remains fragile at best. The DNI was created to centralize and coordinate intelligence. It never had the authority or resources to do it.

The 900 Pound Gorillas of the Intelligence Community

The CIA and the FBI are the dominant forces in U.S. intelligence—yet they do not operate under a unified command. The CIA reports to the DNI. The FBI reports to the Attorney General. Their missions overlap. Their communication does not.

The result is inefficiency, duplication, and turf wars that undermine national security. The solution is simple: unify their command structures under the DNI and remove duplicative authority from the DOJ.

The Department of Defense

Each military service runs its own intelligence unit. Each reports to its own Chief of Staff. None report directly to the Secretary of Defense. That means no one is fully in charge.

To bring order to chaos, unify all service intelligence under the Defense Intelligence Agency for centralized planning, resource allocation, and accountability.

Functional Intelligence Consolidation

Agencies like Treasury’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency all serve national intelligence goals. But they remain administratively isolated.

They should be integrated into the ODNI, not left in silos. Intelligence is too important—and too expensive—for bureaucratic duplication and fractured control.

The Other Behemoth of Bureaucracy—HHS

Departments like Housing and Urban Development and Education should be consolidated into the Department of Health and Human Services. Their mission overlaps. Their structures don’t.

With a unified mission to promote national wellness, affordable housing, education, and disaster relief can all be integrated into a single public health strategy—efficiently managed, transparently accountable, and focused on results.

Incentivize Government Workers Before Privatizing Public Services

The American free enterprise system is built on the simple principle that corporations exist to maximize shareholder value. Directors of private companies have a non-delegable legal obligation to increase profits. If they fail, they can be sued by their stockholders. Public service is not part of their charter. Profit is.

Health insurance is a prime example. Private insurance companies are not public charities. They are not in business to promote public health. They are in business to generate revenue. That means denying claims that reduce profit margins and prolonging costly treatments if they boost the bottom line. If misery makes money, misery continues.

Contrast that with Medicare, funded by payroll taxes, and Medicaid, now a taxpayer-supported social welfare program. Both systems are bloated, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Neither delivers care based on value. Both are run by administrators with no incentive to improve outcomes or lower costs.

Privatization exploits the sick. Bureaucracy exploits the taxpayer.

There is a better way—one that fits squarely within the mission of government and can meet the needs of the American people. Stop rewarding failure. Reward performance instead. Public employees should be compensated based on results, not job titles or years on the job. Salaries and bonuses should reflect real-world metrics: reduced hospital readmissions, improved wellness, faster delivery of care.

A civil servant who improves care, cuts waste, and saves taxpayer dollars should be rewarded. A manager who just pushes paper should not.

Before outsourcing another public service to a contractor whose first duty is to shareholders, invest in the people already doing the job. Give them a reason to excel. Let the wealthy pay for premium care if they wish. But give the rest of America a system that delivers health, not dividends—a system built to serve the public, not enrich stockholders.

Reward the workers on the front lines. Restore accountability through performance-based metrics. The result will be lower costs for better care. Measurable outcomes. And a smaller share of our Gross National Product represented by inefficiency, fraud, and administrative overhead.

Healthcare is just the beginning. Apply the same principle to education, infrastructure, public safety, and every other essential service. Before we privatize another agency or outsource another core government function, we pay government employees to get it right—and hold them accountable if they don’t.

The Path Forward

If the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ever to accomplish its congressional mandate and enhance national security, the Congress must craft legislation which clearly establishes the relationships between the agencies of the intelligence community and the agencies which have been consolidated in the Department of Homeland Security.

The President of the United States on behalf of the Americans who elected him has to call upon Congress to do just that. Until this reorganization is complete and operational there will never be any meaningful and effective basis for national security.

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