Policy and Practice | June 2021

president‘smemo By Tracy Wareing Evans

Retrofitting Our Structures for the Public Good

blueprint, with the American people at the center. To make the most of the largest public investment in decades requires that we understand how our federalist structure came to be today, especially through our people-serving systems, such as human services, housing, and public health. It is these systems that provide the best oppor- tunity to finally repair the foundation on which this nation sits and genuinely work toward a just and inclusive society. How Did We Get Here? Not since Roosevelt’s New Deal has there been such a broad and expan- sive set of national investments in “the general welfare,” as envisioned by Article I of the Constitution. It was the New Deal that created much of the structure under which we still operate today, including the national agency

constant work in progress, functioning on a usually noisy and messy construc- tion site, and occasionally brandishing a fresh coat of paint. All the while, no matter what work is done to the structure, the foundation underneath remains unsettled—flawed in its original design, rooted in the inequi- ties of a nation founded on the land of indigenous communities and the labor of enslaved people, yet claiming to center its power in the people. The time is now to reset the founda- tion if we are ever to make good on Lincoln’s description of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” and, become a better union. As federal, state, and local governments implement the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on the heels of the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Act that preceded it, we need all levels of government to renovate from the same

Recently, in my role as a fellow of the National Academy of Public

Administration (NAPA), I was asked to share my reflections on federalism through the eyes of the human services sector. A fundamental question … and one, in retrospect, I haven’t thought nearly enough about over the course of my career despite working squarely within it. In taking a close look at our federalist system, I am struck by the community-driven innovation that only our federalist system can yield, while being keenly aware of its many detours and systemic flaws. It was a revealing exercise for me and I hope reading it will spark your own thinking and approach to the opportunities before us. F ederalism is integral to our democ- racy. Our decentralized governance system—distributed across multiple layers of government—stands like a building always under construction, a

See President’s Memo on page 24

Image via Shutterstock

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June 2021 Policy&Practice