Pop-Up Episode: Celebrating America's 250th Birthday

On this Independence Day pop-up episode of the GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam mark America's 250th birthday by surfacing some lesser-known milestones in the history of government management. From pre-Declaration government auditing, to a revolutionary-era grievance against King George that sounds surprisingly familiar to anyone who's worked in federal bureaucracy, to the creation of the Treasury Department in 1789, the roots of government management run deep. Plus, some recommendations from America’s Song Book and a shoutout to special 250th “best of” lists. Happy Independence Day! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome everyone to the Gov Navigator Show, a government-focused program that won't make you seasick. We're the Gov Navigators. I'm Robert Chad. And I'm Adam Hughes. We hope to enlighten and liven your week with news and insightful entertaining guests, all on the topic of government management.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Enjoy today's episode of Gov Navigators, brought to you by the creative geniuses behind the award-winning podcast Fedhead.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Adam, you're back. I am back. It's kind of a lie because we're pre-recording this, but we should pretend you're back, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Let's pretend we're back before I hit record and then nobody will know.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

And we shouldn't make a joke about it being your fourth vacation of the month.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

It's not. It's my first vacation of the year, I think. But we should start a tracker. I feel like we need to be encouraging people to take time off.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Oh the opposite direction. So we would color code it, right? So red is the number of days you've taken off, and green are the ones you're in the office. You would flip. I would flip it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Let's do it the other way. You know, we're running a business here. I forgot about that part. No, but you are correct. I'm coming to you from northern Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, and I am at two of them. Two of them. Upper Bottle Lake and Lower Bottle Lake.

unknown 1:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

But you're coming back. I'm back. I got one or two more days now. I'm back for the Independence Day celebration in DC.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

We are recording this as a pop-up episode in lieu of our full episode. Yep. Because we couldn't secure any guests for this holiday week.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Because no, because everybody needs a break from us occasionally. Yeah. So you're going to get a little less.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

I actually, in order to fill our time, spent some time with our friend Claude because there's plenty to talk about to fill in a pop-up episode about the 250th birthday of the nation. So we talk about government management issues, right? We do. So I asked Claude for some advice on what to talk about. And here's what I got. The first federal audit function predates the Declaration of Independence. On April 1st, 1776, the Continental Congress established a Treasury Office of Accounts headed by an auditor general to settle claims and keep the public accounts of the United Colonies. Is this breaking news? I'm not sure this is popularly known. And we've been screwing it up ever since. Is accounting the first true American profession? I'm not sure that's true, but it's the first real management-related action that was taken by this new government.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

So follow-up question for Claude. Was Gene Dodaro there at the time that this office was established? Just asking for a friend.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Yeah, I should have asked him. I will mention the National Academy of Public Administration did a salute to the American public servant this last week, which was fantastic. It was at the Library of Congress our friends Dave Liebrick and Gene De Dero spoke both movingly. Sorry you missed it. I am very sorry I missed it, among many other things. Back to Claude. The Declaration of Independence itself was not devoid of management topics. And this is pretty saucy. One of the charges against George III is that he has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

This is back when people could really write. Yeah. That paints a picture.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Eat out their substance. Did they really eat out their substance? Or did they consume them with bureaucracy?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah. So this is the King George's Tiger team released on the colonies. Had a couple subcommittees as part of that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

I wonder if he imposed a scorecard or a program assessment rating tool on the next. Maybe it might have been it might have been color-coded. Who knows? Yeah. And then the Treasury Act of September 2nd, 1789, created the Department of the Treasury with a secretary, controller, auditor, treasurer, and register. But it was the second agency, the State Department was the first agency. Not a lot of positions there either. Right. They didn't have that building built yet, of course. I thought those were some interesting little tidbits. Yeah. To connect our mission year governors with celebration of the 250th birthday of the nation.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

On an auspicious birthday. Well, I hope that everyone has an amazing Independence Day. Shout out Francis Rose. If you have not taken time to peruse some of the multitudes of 250th best of lists, I encourage you to do that. There's lots of them. Some of them are pretty amazing. You shared one, Robert, with our team about the best foundational revolutionary paintings in the United States on the 250th. But you Google it, ask Claude. They're out there. They're worth your time over the holiday break.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

I will say Eva had to suffer through morning coffee listening to America's songbook. Oh. Oh, but that's delightful. I mean, Old Man River, God bless America. Did she have to suffer through you singing them or I was playing them all?

SPEAKER_00 5:43

There was a little combo. I mean, you have a delightful singing voice, so I feel like it might even be better in person.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Patriotic songs bright and early in the morning may not be miracle blue. No, true.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Well, we want to make sure you guys get to 250th, too. So you better lock that up real quick.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Happy Independence Day, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, happy Independence Day. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Gov Navigator Show, brought to you by GovNavigators. We sure hope you enjoyed it and learned something in the process. And didn't get seasick. Right, of course. If you want to know more about us and what we're up to, please follow us on social media or visit govnavigators.com. Ahoy!