Report Applauds Bright Spots in Federal Government’s COVID-19 Response

The Partnership for Public Service recently released a new report titled “Bright Spots in the Federal Government’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The report details 65 bright spots related to the federal government’s COVID-19 response, divided into four categories: leadership and stewardship, talent, innovation and technology, and collaboration.

The report states that even while the federal government hit hurdles during the pandemic, it nonetheless made some long-lasting operational changes that will continue to be used after the pandemic. Some examples include developing a chatbot to respond to veterans’ concerns, reducing wait times for health care services, and rapidly increasing staff capacity to distribute relief funds for small businesses.

One bright spot under the Leadership and Stewardship category is the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) continuing to educate veterans about their benefits through 10-minute video updates. Another bright spot is the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) helping his agency adjust operations to a remote environment by developing communications toolkits for supervisors.

Under the Talent category, one of the highlights was Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recruiters using “resume mining” to search 1.5 million resumes on USAJOBS and identify potential applicants for jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, in the telework subcategory, the Partnership praised the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where 96 percent of the agency’s 14,000 employees teleworked full time by late April, up from 58 percent who had teleworked at least part time previously.

The next category, Innovation and Technology, applauded the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for launching a central portal through which patients and health care professionals could find and use telehealth resources.

Finally, in the Collaboration category, the Partnership stated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) secured nearly 100 million cloth masks that were then distributed to air, transit, and rail passengers under a partnership with three federal departments.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has made important strides towards maintaining their productivity levels and coping with the pandemic. This report highlights those accomplishments, many of which will continue to impact the federal government and the public after the pandemic.