Code of the District of Columbia

§ 47–308.01. Performance-based budget.

(a) For purposes of this section, the term:

(1) “Activity” means a component part of the District’s program structure comprised of a set of services grouped around a common purpose.

(2) “Operating agency” means any agency that receives budget authority through the District of Columbia’s annual appropriation.

(3) “Performance-based budget” means a budget presentation consisting of agency programs, estimated total program and activity costs, as well as full-time equivalents for the current and next fiscal year; agency strategic result goals; an overview describing the activities within each program; estimated program costs; and program performance measures.

(3A) "Racial Equity" means the elimination of racial disparities such that race no longer predicts opportunities, outcomes, or the distribution of resources for residents of the District, particularly for persons of color and Black residents.

(3B) “Relevant cost drivers” are the basic causes behind service delivery that can be utilized to reasonably predict the cost of a service based on its level of activity, which for 2008 shall be reported at the program level and for 2009 and beyond shall be reported at the activity level.

(3C) “Relevant performance measures” means metrics established by the Mayor, after consultation with Stakeholders before the beginning of each fiscal year, that establish expectations about:

(A) The results an agency will produce;

(B) The outputs or services the agency will produce;

(C) The demands for activities from the agency; and

(D) The efficiency with which the agency produces results, outputs, and services and meets the demands for activity by the agency.

(4) “Service” means the deliverables or products that the customer receives. The lowest level in the District’s program structure, services are discrete units of governmental functions that together make up an activity.

(5) “Service-level budgets” means a budget by fund and object class for a service provided by the District listed at organizational level 4 in the financial system and at the service level in agency strategic business plans.

[(6)] “Stakeholders” are the customers of an agency that use the agency’s services or products and may include both government customers and persons or corporations that are resident in the District.

(b) Beginning with the District of Columbia’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget and financial plan, any agency that has converted to a performance-based budget shall continue presenting its budget in such format, unless the Chief Financial Officer considers it appropriate to present an agency’s budget in a different format.

(c) Beginning in Fiscal Year 2004 and continuing in subsequent fiscal years until all applicable agencies funded by the General Fund within the District of Columbia’s budget and financial plan are submitting performance-based budgets, the Mayor shall identify by executive order, no later than July 10, at least 15 additional agencies to submit performance-based budgets the following fiscal year. For the Fiscal Year 2006 budget and financial plan, the Mayor shall submit to the Council a performance-based budget for every operating agency in the District of Columbia, unless the Chief Financial Officer considers it inappropriate to do so.

(d) Beginning in fiscal year 2006 and phasing in through fiscal year 2009 by appropriation title beginning with Public Safety and Justice and Public Works in fiscal year 2006, Governmental Direction and Support in fiscal year 2007, Public Education Systems and Economic Development and Regulation in fiscal year 2008, and Human Support Services and all other remaining agencies in fiscal year 2009, the Chief Financial Officer shall provide service level budgets for any operating agency where services are a part of an activity that has a minimum threshold of $5 million from the prior fiscal year’s appropriation or provides services determined by the Mayor or the Council to be a priority for the District of Columbia. By no later than August 15 of each year, beginning in fiscal year 2006 and continuing in subsequent fiscal years, the Chief Financial Officer shall provide to the Mayor and the Council a list of service costs for activities that have a minimum threshold of $10 million from the prior fiscal year’s appropriation.

(e) Beginning in Fiscal Year 2005 and continuing in subsequent fiscal years, the Office of Budget and Planning, in consultation with the Office of the City Administrator, shall identify 25 critical programs to benchmark with comparable jurisdictions and shall include those benchmarks in the budget and financial plan.

(f) The Office of Budget and Planning shall review all agency program expenditures, including program definitions, estimated program costs, program performance measures, and agency benchmarks, which expenditures shall be included in the District of Columbia’s budget and financial plan. For the Fiscal Year 2006 budget, no operating agency budget shall be forwarded to the Mayor for approval without the Office of Budget and Planning’s determination that it is a performance-based budget, except those agencies for which the Chief Financial Officer considers such a budget to be inappropriate.

(g)(1) Each agency that has transitioned to the performance-based budget format shall submit a copy of its strategic business plan to the Council prior to January 31 of each year.

(2) The Office of the City Administrator, in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, shall make available, in electronic format, copies of agency strategic business plans to the public and shall display the strategic business plans on the District government’s internet site.

(h)(1) By March 1, 2021, in coordination with the Office of the City Administrator, the Office of Racial Equity, established by [§ 2-1471.02], shall design and implement racial equity tools to enable District agencies to incorporate racial equity into their operations, performance-based budgets, programs, policies, rules, and regulations, and to ensure alignment between departmental and District-wide programs and initiatives.

(2) At a minimum, the Mayor shall use the racial equity tools to:

(A) Identify clear strategic initiatives, objectives, and measurable outcomes;

(B) Develop metrics to measure progress in redressing disparate social and economic outcomes in the District based on race, sex, and ethnicity;

(C) Track and measure how programmatic and policy decisions benefit or burden individuals based on race, sex, or ethnicity;

(D) Examine potential unintended consequences of a policy or programmatic decision and develop a strategy to advance racial equity and mitigate unintended negative consequences; and

(E) Evaluate the efficacy of District agencies' strategic initiatives and programs aimed at reducing disparate outcomes.

(3) Beginning in 2021 for Fiscal Year 2022, and every year thereafter, the Mayor's budget submission package to the Council shall include a summary of how the proposed budget advances racial equity in the District, reduces disparate outcomes, and allocates resources to support equitable outcomes.