ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the policy evaluation efforts in the United States (US). It focuses on the functions and conditions in both the executive and legislative branches of the national government. The US Congress offers a second example of the different time frames by which policy and program evaluation have come into the decision-making process of the federal government. Two summary points from Mosher’s comments can be drawn. First, the same two strands of policy evaluation discussed earlier—applied social science and economic decision making—found their way into the work of the General Accounting Office and the information it supplied to Congress. Second, Congress has come to rely on these forms of data analysis for its own work, much as has the executive branch. The Congressional Budget Office functions as a nonpartisan organization that provides information to Congress on the budget and develops analyses of the costs of alternative policy options.
