The Opportunities and Challenges of the President's Cost Efficiency EO

The new administration has moved quickly to evaluate spending across the government, scrutinizing department after department. The Executive Order (EO) issued on February 26, 2025 clarifies expectations and requirements for agencies around payment justification. While additional clarity is useful, this EO focuses on symptoms rather than treating some of the root causes of inefficiency in government spending.

Challenge: Addressing the Symptom, Not the Root Cause

At Decision Lens, we believe that smarter decisions begin in the planning process—as agencies identify requirements, prioritize them in relation to their mission, and allocate funding accordingly. Today, this is difficult because agencies lack the software, processes, and frameworks needed to ensure investment decisions are consistently mission-aligned.

Section 3 of the Executive Order requires a written justification of payments made. However, justification against a framework should occur much earlier in the process—during multi-year planning, authoring of justification books, and throughout resource allocation discussions. Moving this insight upstream allows leaders, Congress, and the executive branch to ensure alignment before funds are committed and can downstream report on how spend aligned with agreed upon priorities.

For example, Subsection (i) mandates that a contracted item or service requires a brief, written justification before an employee approves payment. By that point, substantial time and effort have already been spent sourcing and evaluating the good or service, leaving little room to consider alternatives or recoup time spent on a non-mission aligned investment. Efficiency should not be measured solely in dollars saved but also in reducing time spent on unaligned activities.

Without a structured decision framework, agencies are forced into reactive justifications instead of proactive mission alignment. This creates tremendous additional stress on employees which could create greater risk to the mission as individuals are forced to focus more on risk mitigation.

While the administration is addressing inefficiencies at the payment stage, a critical path forward lies in upstream improvements to decision-making that eliminate the need for constant downstream justifications or modifications.

Opportunity: Reallocating Funds to Improve Efficiency

While agencies will feel constrained by new efficiency reviews and potential contract modifications, this executive order explicitly allows for fund reallocation—not just elimination:

Subsection (i) states that agencies can reallocate spending to promote efficiency. With the administration’s focus on transparency, accountability, and mission alignment, agencies have an opportunity to redirect funds toward solutions that meet these goals.

We identify three major efficiency gaps where agencies can advocate for fund reallocation to facilitate a more transparent and accountable approach.

1. Software Modernization
   • According to a PPBE Survey conducted by Decision Lens and the Society of Defense Financial Management in 2024, nearly 60% of DoD respondents stated they required new software to meet expectations for a more agile, transparent decision-making process. Relying on Excel and brute-force approaches in an era of government-specific decision intelligence software is no longer acceptable.
2. Process Change
   • The lack of modern software leads agencies to conduct operations far more manually than in the private sector. This administrative burden makes it difficult for employees to focus on strategic decision-making. Now is the time to invest in process modernization to create lasting, long-term impact.
3. Hiring & Promoting Innovators
   • According to Geoffrey Moore’s Diffusion of Innovation, only 2.5% of employees are considered innovators—the individuals who drive organizational change. Archaic software and rigid processes across the government stifle existing workforce talent and make it difficult to recruit high-impact contributors. Additionally, a culture of low risk stifles innovators – something federal agencies must address to drive innovation and create an efficient, modern government.

In Conclusion

The Executive Order presents both opportunities and challenges for agencies. Justifying spend after funds have already been allocated—sometimes years later—places enormous pressure on personnel who may not have been involved in the original decision-making. This process will likely introduce inconsistencies and gaps in institutional knowledge rather than addressing inefficiencies at their core. The real solution is aligning spending with mission priorities, transparently deciding what’s important, and executing a well-defined vision.

At Decision Lens, we empower agencies to bring Decision Intelligence  into their organizations to achieve these very objectives. However, agencies may feel overwhelmed by the idea of adopting new software—especially amid today’s budget scrutiny.

That’s why we’re offering an Efficiency Preparedness Pilot, allowing agencies to quickly assess and improve their decision-making processes at no cost and no obligation.

How It Works:

1. Structure Data for Mission Alignment: Agencies already have the data needed for better decision-making. Decision Lens experts will help structure and organize it for efficiency reviews.
2. Apply a Decision Framework: We create customized decision criteria based on agency-specific missions, leveraging best practices from hundreds of successful implementations.
3. Generate Purpose-Built Reporting: Agencies receive mission-aligned reporting including stack ranks, heat maps, and scatter plots to demonstrate efficiency and budget impact.

The benefits of this pilot go beyond immediate cost assessments. True transformation occurs when long-range planning, medium-range prioritization, and short-range execution work together to ensure funding decisions remain aligned, transparent, and justifiable at every stage.

By adopting Decision Lens, agencies can streamline their processes, enhance transparency, and meet the administration’s efficiency goals—all while improving mission effectiveness.

Let’s work together to turn this executive order from a compliance challenge into an opportunity for real transformation

Learn more about the No Cost Efficiency Pilot today.