Given the fundamental program changes that have occurred in the nation's social programs since President Reagan took office, federal evaluation activities need to be rethought and redirected. It is critical that the utility of programs be documented, economical delivery services be developed, and redundancy of interventions be reduced to optimize the return from public expenditures. It is urgent that a revised federal evaluation agenda be formulated which could be influential in determining future social program policies. During the past decade the strong evaluation capacities developed in domestic social programs were coupled with increasing dissemination and utilization of evaluation results which are now relevant to current White House commitments. In setting evaluation objectives and priorities for the 1980's, five activities require both short- and long-term investments: (1) estimation of the net impact, in terms of cost savings and consequences for populations, of implemented and projected cutbacks in social programs; (2) implementation of social experiments to provide services at reduced costs by increasing competition, consumer options and volunteerism; (3) examination of the objectives and priorities among current social programs; (4) assessment of established programs in comparison with alternative interventions; and (5) development of accountability procedures to maximize block grant program impacts. (CM)