Transforming Federal Public Engagement: New OMB Guidance Sets Course for 2025

In early January, at the end of the Biden administration, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued final guidance on why and how federal agencies should broaden their public participation and community engagement activities (PPCE). The guidance, “Broadening Public Participation and Community Engagement with the Federal Government,” emphasizes the benefits of engagement for both government activities and the public alike. It also directs agencies to institutionalize principles of effective engagement by designating new officials and implementing key actions to watch for in the months ahead. 

The guidance is itself the product of a thorough public engagement process. Over the course of 2024, OMB invited a wide range of individuals and organizations to provide feedback on a draft of the policy guidance and the draft outline of a toolkit, together composing a framework for designing effective and meaningful public engagement activities. The resulting guidance is representative of engagement with many different stakeholders; it does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all approach for the whole of government, but sets out guiding principles and leading practices to be flexibly applied across varying contexts. As an organization motivated by our core value of radical collaboration, the Data Foundation applauds the alignment between many elements of this guidance and our recommendations provided to OMB on the framework in June. 

The PPCE guidance recognizes that Federal programs and policies impact millions of lives every day, and the importance that agencies are often required by law to engage the public about these programs on a regular basis. Some PPCE activities can be time-consuming and costly to agencies, but — as the guidance conveys — the benefits are ample. The information collected through engagement is a valid and necessary form of evidence for policy-making that should be used for improving outcomes of public programs, thereby making government more responsive and accountable to public needs. The guidance sets five guiding principles for agencies to design engagement activities that produce high-quality information and reach communities strategically. In brief, they are:

• Purposeful — Agencies tailor engagement tactics to their goals and participant needs.
• Respectful and Mutually Beneficial — Agencies value participant knowledge in every context, and act to reduce participation burdens on the public.
• Transparent and Accountable — Agencies communicate clear expectations for the purpose and process of engagement activities.
• Welcoming and Accessible — Agencies remove barriers to participation and seek out engagement with all individuals, communities, and organizations interested in or affected by proposed agency actions.
• Learning Focused and Iterative — Agencies seek continuous improvement of engagement activities by establishing metrics and outcomes to track progress, conducting formal evaluations when possible.

The PPCE guidance’s principles prioritize designs that put proactivity, learning, and participant needs first. The federal government has not always connected with or learned from the public for many reasons. The guidance seeks to improve this area. Engagement strategies that reduce burdens on participants and meet communities “where they are” are strong examples of how agencies should plan for flexibilities in the scale and scope of public participation, as the Data Foundation previously recommended. Likewise, centering continuous learning as a guiding principle supports the institutionalization of evidence-building cultures in agencies and the use of public engagement as a critical source of program data and evidence. Ideally, this principle will encourage agencies to seek out public engagement because of the value of the evidence created, not as a compliance measure. 

Looking Ahead

In this guidance, OMB directs agencies’ to take several actions to watch for in 2025.

First, agencies are directed to designate a senior official for coordination within 180 days (by July 15, 2025). This official will coordinate with other senior agency leaders to disseminate the guidance to components that direct or conduct engagement activities, and will coordinate the designation of one or more senior officials for implementation of the guidance. The senior officials for implementation will be the conveners and internal resources for the long-term broadening of PPCE activities. Their roles will be multi-faceted, including, but not limited to, supporting agency strategic-planning related to engagement, the development of engagement policies and agency Open Government Plans, identifying capacity needs for effective engagement, and disseminating engagement-related guidance, tools, trainings, and leading practices throughout their agencies. 

Second, OMB has provided a menu of five initial approaches for these officials to consider within the first year of implementation. Encouraging flexibility, the guidance encourages agencies to strategize and select the approaches that would be best suited “to support the design or delivery of a program or service, make efficient use of agency resources, or broaden the agency’s reach.” The options available to agencies include: 

• Taking a preliminary inventory of engagement resources and activities to support future improvement, 
• Using a PPCE capacity “checklist” to assess engagement readiness,
• Applying PPCE methods or tools which address needs or opportunities identified with the capacity checklist or inventory,
• Developing an engagement plan for a specific program or project, or,
• Creating a centralized webpage to promote and explain engagement activities available to the public.

Third, within one year, by January 2026, OMB is requiring agencies to submit a high level progress report on the approaches they plan to implement in support of PPCE, with a proposed implementation timeline.  

For interested agency officials, the guidance also provides examples of leading practices and examples of widely-used participation and engagement frameworks. The Data Foundation provided a stakeholder engagement toolkit in 2023 as a resource for federal agencies who are interested in how to meaningfully engage stakeholders in policy and program decisions, focused specifically on Evidence Act implementation. As federal agencies begin implementing this guidance, the Data Foundation will also be monitoring the progress made in broadening public participation and assisting our partners where needed. 

As the guidance states, “meaningful engagement is a process, not a single event.” In support of this ongoing process, OMB will be working with interagency councils to proactively assist agencies and implementation officials with capacity building activities, as well as communicating success stories and “what works” to federal audiences and the broader public. With clear principles, defined roles, and flexible implementation approaches, federal agencies now have a more robust framework to enhance their public engagement practices. The success of these efforts will ultimately be measured by how well they amplify public voices in federal decision-making.