This issue, which includes government documents pertaining to evaluation as well as contributions from federal evaluators and administrators, outlines the duties, responsibilities, and methodological approaches of the various government offices with evaluative functions, and details some of the strategies used by these agencies to cope with the twin pressures of reduced funding and greater calls to demonstrate the effectiveness of government programs—pressures first felt in the 1980s and which continue to the present day. The contributors discuss federal evaluation agencies in three broad categories:   executive branch social agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where the cutbacks were the most severe; the three so-called central executive branch agencies—the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the General Services Administration—where cutbacks were less severe but still significant, and where attitudes towards evaluation varied over time; and the evaluative agencies of the legislative branch—the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, and the Office of Technology Assessment—where evaluation remained fairly robust and well-funded.

This is the 55th volume of the quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation.