[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S938]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IMPLEMENTATION OF MANAGEMENT REFORMS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

  Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity to 
address some vital management issues at the Department of Commerce and 
urge Secretary-designate Daley to make use of the management tools 
Congress has provided to obtain better results for the taxpayers' 
investment. The Department of Commerce must tackle some endemic 
management problems before it can successfully carry out its mission of 
promoting the Nation's international trade, economic growth, and 
technological advancement.
  The main problem with the Department of Commerce may be in the 
breadth of its mission. Commerce's writ runs from promoting American 
competitiveness in the global marketplace to providing the weather data 
we see on the news each night. The Department, which employs 35,000 
people and spends $3.5 billion of taxpayer dollars is, in reality, a 
loose collection of more than 100 programs. In the last Congress, many 
questioned the value added of this departmental bureaucracy. This 
culminated in action by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee to 
report out a bill that would have abolished the Department, as such, 
and reassigned many of its functions.
  Clearly, the Department's new leadership will have a task ahead of it 
to ensure that its many bureaus and offices are efficiently run and are 
effectively serving the taxpayers' interest. For example, the General 
Accounting Office [GAO] has identified the National Weather Service's 
modernization efforts as being a high risk area which is especially 
vulnerable to the problems of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. 
This year, planning for the decennial census is expected to be added to 
that list. In addition, auditors have found significant accounting 
problems at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  I hope that the Department of Commerce will be able to improve its 
operations through effective implementation of recently enacted 
legislation. Congress has given the agencies like the Department of 
Commerce the tools to improve their management operations, most notably 
by passing the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Government 
Performance and Results Act [GPRA] of 1993, and the information 
management and procurement reforms of the 104th Congress. These laws 
are designed to get the Federal Government to operate in a sound, 
businesslike manner and implementing these management reforms is a 
major responsibility for each department head.
  The Government Performance and Results Act, for example, can be an 
effective tool to make Government work better by measuring the success 
or failure of Government programs and using this information to support 
budget decisions. For example, GAO found that the Commerce Department 
shares its mission with at least 71 Federal departments, agencies, and 
offices. With this type of overlap and duplication, the Department 
needs to have a clear idea of its primary missions, otherwise it risks 
doing a lot of things poorly and nothing well at all. GPRA, by focusing 
on agency missions and results, will give Commerce, the Office of 
Management and Budget, and Congress the information necessary to 
consolidate and eliminate wasteful and redundant programs at the 
Department.
  I submitted to Secretary-designate Daley several questions regarding 
his views on implementing GPRA and improving Commerce's financial 
accountability and information resources management as part of his 
confirmation process. I look forward to receiving from him a firm 
commitment to use GPRA's strategic planning process, performance goals, 
and performance measures to radically transform his agency to better 
serve the taxpayers.
  There are many challenges ahead for Congress and Secretary-designate 
Daley as we address the problems at the Department of Commerce 
identified by GAO, the Department's inspector general and others. 
Certainly, the bipartisan management reforms we have enacted should be 
implemented to assist in that process. I am sure that together we can 
work to effectively implement sound management policies and practices 
and I look forward to achieving those objectives in the coming 
Congress.

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