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About John Mercer
Mr. Mercer has been referred to by key members of Congress and many government officials as "the Father of GPRA" for having proposed, initiated and led the development of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) while serving as Counsel to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. During his 8 years with the Committee, he was also significantly involved in the development and implementation of several other major reforms of federal agency management, including the Chief Financial Officers Act, the Government Management Reform Act, and the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. He also had oversight responsibility for the Inspector General Act. Mr. Mercer is the designer of CASCADE™ Performance Based Budgeting Software, a strategic planning and performance budgeting software for large government agencies. He is also the creator of the CASCADE™ Performance Budgeting System for government agencies, and he has been described in the press as being “considered by many a foremost expert on performance-based budgeting.” He began championing this reform in the federal government in the late 1980's, as was noted in a 1993 newspaper article that stated, “Mercer relentlessly plugged ‘performance-based budgeting’ … from practically his first day in Washington.” Mr. Mercer previously served as Mayor and Councilmember in Sunnyvale, CA, whose internationally famous performance management and budget system was used by him as the inspiration for the Government Performance and Results Act. The White House Office of Management and Budget has stated that Sunnyvale’s system “stands out as the single best example of a comprehensive approach to performance measurement that we have found in the United States. . . One underlying reason for the success in Sunnyvale is the fact that every program manager uses the system to plan, manage, and assess progress on a day-to-day basis.” (OMB testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, May 5, 1992) In the President's Budget for FY 2003, Sunnyvale's system of performance budgeting was again cited as being internationally recognized for its effectiveness. Mr. Mercer continues to be called upon to advise committees of the Congress on governmental performance management issues. For example, in June 2001, he testified on GPRA implementation before the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Relations. At this hearing, he described his original expectations for GPRA and how much more needs to be done to meet those expectations, including implementation of performance-based budgeting. He also testified before this House Subcommittee in March 2004, covering GPRA implementation and the need for Congress to use the GPRA-related plans and reports to conduct oversight of agencies. He is often used by the press as an expert source on performance-based management and budgeting, and he has been the subject of featured profiles in such publications as the Federal Times, Federal Computer Week, and Government Computer News. Mr. Mercer has chaired two international conferences in Singapore on strategic planning and performance measurement for South East Asian countries. At the request of the U.S. Information Agency and of the World Bank, he has also conducted sessions on this subject for officials from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published his paper on Sunnyvale’s performance management and budgeting system and distributed it to its member governments. Drawing on his over 20 years of experience in governmental performance-based management and budgeting, he has made numerous presentations on the subject at conferences and other meetings of federal managers. He is featured in the popular training film “Strategic Planning in Government – Not Business as Usual” (CRM Films), and he has provided GPRA-related training to personnel from dozens of federal agencies. Mr. Mercer has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Policy Development and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His 13 years of Capitol Hill experience include 5 years on staff in the U.S. House of Representatives, in addition to his 8 years as Senate Committee Counsel. He has an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from San Jose State University and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame. |
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John Mercer is President of Strategisys LLC and a management consultant to U.S. and foreign governments on improving governmental performance and accountability. He is an internationally-recognized expert in governmental strategic planning, performance budgeting and comprehensive performance management. His