[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3924]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             NEW TITLES FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration announced once 
that it was committed to reinventing government. But according to a new 
Brookings Institute study released yesterday, it sounds like the 
administration is just reinventing job titles.
  Yesterday the Brookings Institute released a study, detailed in the 
Washington Post, that discussed this phenomenon of title creep. It 
stated, This administration has created as many new job titles during 
its 6 short years than the past seven administrations created over the 
preceding 33 years. Listen to some of the more inventive titles they 
came up with: Principal Assistant Deputy Under Secretary, Associate 
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, and my personal favorite is 
Principal Deputy to Deputy Assistant Secretary.
  The Federal Engraving and Printing office must be working overtime on 
these new business cards, Mr. Speaker. It is amazing they can even fit 
the title on one small card.
  What does all this mean to the average taxpayer? It means more layers 
of bureaucracy, more delays, and more interference. It is hard to 
imagine that the American taxpayer is getting anything out of these 
extra layers of bureaucracy except perhaps a big headache.
  But in the true spirit of the Clinton vision of reinventing 
government, I have decided to take a new title for myself. Imagine my 
new impressive business card, when it says, Richard K. Armey, B.A., 
M.A., Ph.D., M.C., Principal Deputy Underspeaker of the House of 
Representatives for the United States of America.

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