In addition, the program would hand out grants in fewer priority areas than Framework 5 now encompasses.
He believes that his role is to identify a few priorities and spend his political capital on those alone.
Yet the order in which he has made his calls, and the first meetings he has scheduled with other leaders, reveal a few priorities.
"Unless we set a few priorities and relatively short-term priorities and allocate enough money to actually get them done, you'll have lots of planning and little getting done," said Kathryn S. Wylde, the partnership's president.
But in interviews with more than 50 former aides and colleagues, a picture of his leadership emerges: He sets his sights on a few priorities, frequently to underscore his political goals.
My advice to other entrepreneurs would be become clear about the vital few priorities that help you achieve your objectives, where you can add most value and focus on every day.
Earlier this week, Scott Carson, the president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told company managers the aircraft maker was willing to hold discussions "when the union focuses on its critical few priorities, and only then can we begin to narrow the wide gap in our positions".
The vote came in the final days of the 111th Congress as Democrats sought to force through a final few priorities before they turn over control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans in January and see their clout in the Senate diminished.
Fixing the paralyzing disarray at the I.N.S., upgrading vigilance at the nation's ports and establishing new bioterrorism research programs at the National Institutes of Health, to name a few priorities, cannot be postponed because agencies are focused on their impending moves, or because managers are waiting for a new chain of command to make decisions.
