The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has announced a new strategy framework for its U.S. Democracy Program.

Developed in response to the ever-increasing polarization in Congress and longstanding weaknesses in the ability of the White House and federal agencies to implement policies and deliver services, the National Governing Institutions strategy will support efforts to strengthen the legislative and executive branches by making them more resilient, responsive, effective, and inclusive. According to the foundation, a younger and more demographically diverse, digitally native workforce would enable the executive branch to better administer policies, deliver services, and respond to emergencies, yet only 6.8 percent of full-time federal workers are under the age of 30. Over the next five years, the initiative will work to identify and remove obstacles such as increasingly outdated civil service laws, hiring systems, technology, workplace cultures, and talent management that deter young people from pursuing civil service careers.

In addition to supporting a larger and more diverse young candidate pool for government jobs, the initiative aims to foster a consensus among policy makers on the need for civil service reform and the principles and goals that should guide it; encourage members of Congress to take responsibility for the health of their institutions and adopt reforms to modernize both chambers; and urge both branches to increase investments in their internal expertise, leadership, and technology and improve the functioning of government.

"Many changes envisioned by our strategy in both branches of government will benefit from lessons learned in how Congress adopted reforms quickly and unexpectedly during the pandemic," program officer Jean Parvin Bordewich wrote in announcing the new strategy. "COVID also opened the door to a wider range of interns — the pipeline of future staff — many of whom cannot afford a summer in Washington....These changes, advanced and supported by Hewlett grantees, will bring greater diversity to the pipeline for future [c]ongressional staff, another key part of our strategy."