This unit of the Mayor's Office is listed in City operating budget documents as the Division of Administration and Policy Planning (2000-2002) and as the Human Resources Administration Division prior to that period. A separate document prepared at the end of the Morial administration in 2002, however, states that "the Division of Federal and State Programs and Mayor’s Office Administration was established in October, 1995 in the first reorganization of the Morial Administration."

During the 1970s the city had an Office of Federal Programs that worked to secure and manage the significant percentage of the city’s budget that was funded with federal dollars. In later years OFP was disbanded and its functions were delegated to other offices within city government. In the 1994 transition process the Federal Programs Task Force found that each city department was assuming responsibility for its own federal grant programs and applications. That proved to be less than the most efficient way to handle such affairs.

The charge of the Office of Federal and State Programs was to develop and manage grant funding for the City of New Orleans. Additionally, the Office coordinated grant regulatory compliance and single audit resolution. It provided administrative management to several competitive initiatives with the Mayor’s Office. It administered the the city’s Enterprise Community program awarded through the Empowerment Zone application submitted in 1994; the city’s Healthy Start Initiatives with services provided by the Great Expectations Foundation, Inc.; and the city’s Weed & Seed program for reclaiming neighborhoods and making them safe for families.