How Government Can Work Better: Insights from Former IRS Commissioner and Senate Counsel

As a federal government shutdown extended toward record length, two seasoned public servants shared their experiences and opinions about how government can and should work better.

Former IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel and Gregg Nunziata, former general counsel to Sen. Marco Rubio and chief nominations counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) to a full room of undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and research associates earlier this month about what it means to govern responsibly when partisanship runs high and trust in institutions runs low.

“One way in which government works is for it to simply be a playing field on which we can have productive disagreements with each other,” Nunziata said.

Werfel offered that government working properly often means that its operations — such as food safety or air traffic control — are invisible because they are functioning smoothly.

“The way to know it’s effective is that you don’t notice it,” he said.

The Millstone Fellowship in Public Service in Yale College, offered through ISPS, sponsored the panel in collaboration with the Tobin Center for Economic Policy. Yale College alumni Jennifer Millstone ’00 and David Millstone ’99 funded this fellowship to support undergraduates’ summer internships in public service by providing a stipend that can help offset the costs of housing, transportation, and other expenses.

Under the leadership of Christina Kinane, ISPS faculty fellow and assistant professor of political science, the Millstone Fellowship offers more than just financial support — it creates a vibrant learning community. Through curated speaker events and roundtable discussions, fellows gain firsthand insights from Yale alumni serving across all levels of government. The program equips students with practical experience, fosters peer connections, and helps them build lasting professional networks as they prepare to launch their careers in public service.

“Government does work,” Kinane said. “If we can get the capacity and the willpower to do it.”

As Kinane moderated the discussion with Werfel and Nunziata, they addressed how leadership, policy, and institutional culture collide.

Nunziata described himself as a “Congressional supremacist,” believing the two-chambered federal legislature outlined in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution should be the driving institution of American governance. He lamented that Congress is failing in this role, especially in areas like immigration reform, where “everybody agrees there’s a massive problem, and we still can’t fix it.”

Werfel, a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, broke government down into three parts: the aforementioned seldom-noticed day-to-day services (“You landed here safely last night — that’s government working”); fixing broken systems by identifying inefficiencies and modernizing them; and policy consensus, when government recognizes a problem and builds bipartisan solutions.

“If government is working well, then across party lines we’ll come together to figure out how to build that,” Werfel said.

Werfel, who served under 14 cabinet secretaries, described learning to lead as a combination of experience, setbacks, and mentorship. He singled out Jack Lew, former White House chief of staff and secretary of the treasury, as someone who helped teach him how to navigate difficult decisions.

“Jack is someone inspiring to me,” Werfel said. “He grounds decisions in a simple framing: What is the right thing to do?”

In addition, Werfel said Lew often reminded him to balance short-term political optics with long-term stewardship for the next generation.

“I love the word stewardship,” Nunziata echoed. “I think it’s the most important word in public service or in politics.”

Nunziata emphasized how leadership in Congress should be about doing the work, not seeking attention. He shared how junior staffers can become influential by mastering niche policy areas, such as when he worked on patent reform advising Republicans during the Obama administration.

Nunziata now runs the Society for the Rule of Law, a group of conservative lawyers who work to strengthen the rule of law, the Constitution, and American democracy.

Werfel, who was nominated to lead the IRS by Democratic President Joe Biden, described the value of building coalitions with members of the opposition party. He shared how his relationship with Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch helped him navigate a politically charged environment and reinforce the value of humility and outreach.

Werfel is now an executive in residence at the Johns Hopkins University School of Government and Policy and a distinguished fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

The pair also addressed what’s known as the abundance agenda, the idea that government should focus on expanding supply of resources such as housing, energy, and infrastructure rather than managing scarcity. The Tobin Center recently announced an expansion of its initiative focused on improving state capacity to deliver supply-side solutions to these problems.

Nunziata said both major parties suffer from “a feeling of scarcity and decline,” which fuels despair and disengagement. He warned that risk aversion and regulatory overlap can stifle innovation.

“Regulators are afraid of the bridge that collapses and not incentivized by the bridge that gets built a year sooner,” Nunziata said.

Werfel advised abundance advocates to be transactional, suggesting the country could take advantage of its large supply of timber to create more affordable housing, thereby filling a need, creating jobs, and supporting a domestic industry.

“Policy goals should be framed as political wins, not abstract ideals,” he said.

Werfel emphasized the importance of executional certainty. For example, when launching the IRS’s program allowing people to file their tax return directly online for free (canceled by the Trump Administration), he resisted pressure to include too many features.

“It was like, if we structure it one way, the odds of launching successfully were 97%,” he said. “But if we do it the way the White House wants, the odds go down to 60%.

He advocated for finding the “sweet spot” when rolling out complicated technological initiatives — not too simple and not too ambitious.

Nunziata added that staff can help leaders calibrate ambition.

“Politicians want to get elected, and they often overpromise,” he said. “Staff can play an important role in advising what’s possible.”

Nunziata said responsible governance starts with knowing your role and mandate. Lawyers, for example, are guided by professional obligations that help constrain political excesses.

Werfel likened responsible decision-making to adjusting stereo equalizer dials — balancing law, politics, stewardship, and transparency. He stressed the importance of collective judgment and input from trusted advisors.

Nunziata suggested that too much transparency can undermine trust and negotiation, as with the presence of cameras in Congressional hearings.

“Hearings have become a joke,” he said. “Questions get asked performatively. And legislation doesn’t get negotiated.”

Addressing the students in the room, Nunziata said that when serving in a public capacity, they should know their values and red lines — particularly in politically volatile times.

“Put some reins on your ambition,” he said. “Understand that this is public service. And if your ambition starts champing at those reins, then do something else.”

Werfel said that public service offers higher highs and lower lows than the private sector, encouraging students to embrace challenge and purpose.

“I’m willing to bet you all have extraordinary contributions within you,” he said. “Don’t shy away from it.”