Trending Questions on Government Efficiency and Policy Change

Signed into law in July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) consolidates sweeping changes to tax policy, healthcare, education and entitlement programs. For government leaders, the most immediate impact is fiscal: Over $425 billion in federal funding assistance is being reallocated, with Medicaid alone facing $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

This shift forces state and local governments to rethink how they deliver services with fewer resources. But it also creates an opportunity to streamline operations, accelerate modernization and adopt technologies that improve efficiency. 

Gartner’s government efficiency framework — built around operating efficiently, modernizing effectively and delivering successfully — provides a strategic lens for navigating this disruption. OBBA may be a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to lead with impact.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) isn’t just a fiscal challenge — it’s a modernization opportunity. The law’s permanent 100% bonus depreciation and expanded Section 179 limits allow agencies to expense IT infrastructure in the same year it’s purchased, making capital investments more financially competitive than traditional OpEx-based cloud models.

This shift enables leaders to break long refresh cycles, reduce technical debt and bundle larger modernization projects into a single fiscal year. CIOs and CFOs should reassess cloud-first policies, identify aging infrastructure that poses security or performance risks and build financial models that demonstrate reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).

CIOs are central to navigating OBBBA’s Medicaid changes, which introduce new eligibility requirements and verification mandates. These updates demand rapid changes to Medicaid IT systems, tighter integration across platforms, and new capabilities for tracking and reporting.

To maintain efficiency while still meeting the priorities of citizens and policymakers, CIOs must align IT strategy with broader agency goals, secure federal match funding through updated Advance Planning Documents (ADPs) and adopt automation and AI to reduce manual workloads. The CMS Risk Management Framework — traditionally used for cybersecurity — can be adapted to manage programmatic risks and guide decision-making.

Technology investments must be positioned not just as operational fixes, but as strategic enablers of resilience and mission delivery.

For CFOs, OBBBA presents a dual challenge: managing significant funding reductions while preserving essential services. This requires a shift from traditional budgeting to performance-based financial leadership. CFOs must build frameworks that link financial decisions to mission outcomes, enabling agencies to make informed trade-offs and prioritize what matters most.

Efficiency isn’t just about cutting costs — it’s about proving value. That means streamlining financial operations, redeploying resources to high-impact areas and maintaining transparency with staff and stakeholders. Scenario planning becomes essential, allowing CFOs to stress-test their budgets against future policy shocks and activate contingency plans before disruptions escalate. In short, CFOs must lead with clarity, agility and a relentless focus on outcomes.

OBBBA’s community engagement requirements — mandating 80 hours of work, education or volunteering per month for Medicaid eligibility — introduce new administrative burdens. States must verify these activities in real time, requiring new systems, processes and staff training.

At the same time, budget constraints may limit hiring and increase pressure on existing teams. CHROs must find ways to maintain productivity, support employee well-being and align workforce strategies with modernization goals.

As government leaders often say, great citizen experience starts with great employee experience. Efficiency in this context means building a workforce that’s agile, resilient and equipped to deliver services under new constraints.

Executive orders, budget reconciliations and regulatory updates are becoming more frequent — and more complex. Leaders across the public sector are asking how to maintain momentum on modernization and efficiency when the policy landscape keeps shifting.

The answer lies in moving beyond reactive compliance. Agencies need enterprise-grade scenario planning to anticipate risks and activate predefined responses before disruptions escalate. Unified compliance frameworks that automate reporting and reduce audit burdens are no longer optional — they’re foundational. And governance structures, including AI and regulatory watch councils, are essential to interpret downstream guidance and maintain readiness.

Efficiency and modernization aren’t separate from this work — they’re enabled by it. By embedding agility into operations, technology and leadership practices, government leaders can continue to deliver measurable outcomes, even as priorities evolve.