[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 22, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H1176-H1177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1045
         FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD OPERATE LIKE PRIVATE SECTOR

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, almost every day we read or hear about some

[[Page H1177]]

terrible waste of taxpayer dollars by the Federal bureaucracy.
  Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the Veterans Benefits 
Administration spent more than $200 million to upgrade its computers, 
but now it is slower than ever in processing claims.
  This terrible inefficiency comes at a time when our veterans are 
dying at a rate of more than 500,000 a year, no major war for many 
years, and fewer soldiers and veterans now than in the past. It now 
takes 205 days to complete a veteran's claim compared to 164 in 1991, 
and 164 days was slow.
  The problem is that Federal employees are paid the same whether they 
work hard or whether they work easy. There is already a big bonus 
system in place for outstanding performance.
  What we need now is to cut the pay of Federal employees who are not 
working hard and efficiently and producing good results. This is what 
happens in the private sector. Real estate agents are not paid unless 
they sell the house. The Federal Government will always be a sea of 
ineptitude and inefficiency, as former Energy Secretary Watkins just 
described it, unless we make it operate more like the private sector.

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