Federal Strategy and Management

Tariffs and tax breaks won’t fix America’s quality crisis. But perhaps an overhaul of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will.

It’s time to think big and bold. The United States should pursue a super-automation moonshot by establishing 50 to 100 demonstration factories that deploy state-of-the-art automation technologies.

Assuming the Trump administration is serious about shrinking government, why not eliminate an agency whose sole purpose is to distort market outcomes by privileging firm size over performance and productivity? When it comes to government waste, the Small Business Administration is low-hanging fruit that has been over-ripe for a long time.

President Trump’s proposal to move USPS under the Department of Commerce would politicize an independent institution, risking service disruptions and unfair pricing. Instead, USPS needs innovation-focused reforms that boost efficiency, strengthen public-private collaboration, and maintain its universal service mission without political interference.

With the right infrastructure and vision, the United States can become a global leader in AI-enabled diplomacy. The State Department should seize this moment—not just to experiment with AI and increase organizational efficiency, but to embed AI at the core of how it conducts diplomacy in the 21st century.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has aggressively downsized the federal workforce. To maintain essential services with fewer staff, the administration must embrace digital transformation, leveraging AI, automation, and self-service portals to improve efficiency and modernize government operations.

The United States has seen fragmented efforts in AI regulation. Lacking coordination, these efforts failed to create a unified strategy, leaving the U.S. without a clear voice on AI.

Congress should authorized funds for a government-wide training program to help U.S. officials better understand Chinese technology policy.

Congress should establish an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Competitiveness (ARPA–C) to fund advanced R&D projects.

Innovation, productivity, and competitiveness must be top priorities for Canada’s next federal government, not sidenotes or vague aspirations to be addressed with little more than lip service.