This is a Comptroller General Presentation delivered to the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society in Tallahassee, Florida on October 28, 2004. Major topics of this presentation include: past fiscal trends and significant long-range challenges, rising public expectations for demonstrable results and enhanced responsiveness, selected trends and challenges having no boundaries, additional resource demands due to recent terrorism events in the United States, government performance/accountability and high risk challenges, including the lack of effective human capital strategies, implementing new accounting and reporting approaches, and developing new metrics for measureing the impact of policies and decisions over the long term.