Senator Warner has a new assignment.  The Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Kent Conrad, has asked Senator Warner to lead a bipartisan Task Force on Governmental Performance.

The group will look at how the government measures the cost-effectiveness of federal agencies and programs.  The goal is to boost efficiency and find cost savings for taxpayers.  

“I strongly believe in the principle that ‘what gets measured gets done.’ This may not be the most glamorous or exciting stuff, but I am eager to get to work with my colleagues on the challenge of helping federal agencies and programs perform better through quality measurements, greater transparency and public accountability.”

Chairman Conrad selected Senator Warner to serve as chairman of the task force based on his experience as a business leader and as the former governor of Virginia.  

At today's first meeting, the task force heard from President Obama's Chief Performance Officer, Jeffrey Zients.  

In his prepared remarks, Zients said:

“The test of a performance management system is whether it is used … [and] the current approach fails this test,” Zients said in his prepared remarks today. “Overall, too much emphasis has been placed on producing performance information to comply with a checklist of requirements instead of using it to drive change. This must change.”

Here are some highlights from the opening remarks:

Other Budget Committee members serving on the Task Force include Senators Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Mike Crapo (R-ID).

Click here to read the press release.  You can watch the entire task force hearing here, on the Budget Committee's website.