    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [March 3, 1993]
    [Pages 233-235]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the National Performance Review
    March 3, 1993

        Ladies and gentlemen, I think you all know we are here to announce a
    terribly important initiative in this administration to bring about
    greater efficiency and lower cost of Government.
        I want to begin by saying that we intend for this to be a bipartisan
    and a citizen Government effort. And I'm delighted by the concerned
    Members of Congress who are here today with the Vice President and me,
    people who have already worked on this issue. I'd like to begin just by
    acknowledging the presence here of Senators Glenn and Levin, Senator
    Cohen, Senator Dorgan, Senator Lieberman, Senator Roth, and Senator
    Krueger; and in the House, Congressman Conyers, Congressman Clinger,
    Congressman Gordon, Congressman Laughlin, and Congresswoman Pryce and
    Congresswoman Slaughter. All of them have manifested an interest in the
    issues we are here to discuss today.
        I also want to especially thank the distinguished comptroller of the
    State of Texas, John Sharp, who's to my right here, for the work that he
    did with us to put this project together and for coming all the way from
    Texas to be with us and with his Senator.
        Today I am taking what I hope and believe will be a historic step in
    reforming the Federal Government by announcing the formation of a
    national performance review. Our goal is to make the entire Federal
    Government both less expensive and more efficient, and to change the
    culture of our national bureaucracy away from complacency and
    entitlement toward initiative and empowerment. We intend to redesign, to
    reinvent, to reinvigorate the entire National Government.
        Working under the direction of the Vice President for the next 6
    months, we'll conduct an intensive national review of every single
    Government agency and service. We'll enlist citizens and Government
    workers and leaders from the private sector in a search not only for
    ways to cut wasteful spending but also for ways to improve services to
    our citizens and to make our Government work better.
        I'll ask every member of our Cabinet to assign their best people to
    this project, managers, auditors, and frontline workers as well. And to
    put the ``M'' back in the OMB, I've asked Phil Lader, who is to my far
    left, the new Deputy Director for Management at OMB and a person who has
    spent his life solving difficult and challenging management and people
    problems, to take the lead in making our Government work

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    better, not only during this 6-month period but permanently for as long
    as I am President.
        We will turn first to Federal employees for help. They know better
    than anyone else how to do their jobs if someone will simply ask them
    and reward them for wanting to do it better. We'll ask the public to
    help us improve services and cut waste by calling an 800 number or by
    writing to the Vice President, because no one deserves a bigger say in
    the services Government provides than Government's customers, the
    American people. We'll look for ways to streamline our own organizations
    to reduce unnecessary layers and to improve services to the better uses
    of technology by giving managers more flexibility and by giving
    frontline workers more decisionmaking power. Just as we're trying to do
    that in the White House, we will try to do that throughout the National
    Government.
        When I was the Governor of Arkansas, our State became the first in
    the Nation to institute a governmentwide total quality management
    program. And I can tell you, it works. It isn't easy. It isn't quick. It
    can make a huge difference, not only to the people but also to the
    people who work for the Government as well.
        We'll look at the good work that has already been done, including
    many thoughtful reforms proposed by Members of the Congress, including
    the work last year by the House Task Force on Government Waste, chaired
    by then Congressman and now Senator Byron Dorgan. They discovered, among
    other things, that the Pentagon had stockpiled 1.2 million bottles of
    nasal spray. Even with my allergies, I only need half that many.
    [Laughter] As we locate such waste and wipe it out, it will be a breath
    of fresh air to the American taxpayers.
        Cutting spending will be a priority. But so is making the system
    work better for the people who work in Government and the people who pay
    the bills and are served by it. The truth is we can't achieve the
    savings we want simply by cutting funds. We must also use the remaining
    funds in a much wiser way. We'll challenge the basic assumptions of
    every program, asking does it work; does it provide quality service;
    does it encourage innovation and reward hard work? If the answer is no
    or if there's a better way to do it or if there's something that the
    Federal Government is doing it should simply stop doing, we'll try to
    make the changes needed.
        Many good programs began for a good reason: to serve a national
    purpose or to give the States time to develop an institutional capacity
    to administer them. But times change, and in many cases State and local
    governments are now better suited to handle these programs. The Federal
    Government simply can't do everything, and there are many things the
    States or the private sector could do better.
        This performance review will not produce another report just to
    gather dust in some warehouse. We have enough of them already. That's
    why I am asking for a list of very specific actions we can take now,
    agency by agency, program by program. This is hard work. We've been a
    long time getting to this spot, and we can't change the Government
    overnight. But we can continuously improve our operations in ways that
    reap dramatic results for the people of this country.
        Two years ago, when the State of Texas faced an enormous budget
    shortfall, they launched a performance review under the leadership of
    John Sharp that saved the taxpayers billions of dollars over the ensuing
    years, made government work better at the same time.
        Last month, Senator Bob Krueger took out an ad in the Washington
    Post just inviting the public to call a waste hotline to help make
    Government work and to help make it 100 percent fat-free. He got 200
    calls the first day.
        Vice President Gore and I think a national performance review is an
    absolutely necessary beginning, because we have too much to do that a
    wasteful and mismanaged Government will not be able to do. We have to
    cut and invest at the same time, something that's never been done
    before. We have to reduce the cost of health care and meet the
    challenges of an intensely competitive global economy. And we have to do
    those things with less money than we're spending in many areas today. We
    have to reduce the largest deficit in our history, as we do in our
    economic program, or it will literally rob us of our ability to solve
    problems, invest in the future, or thrive economically.
        And most important, the American people deserve a Government that is
    both honest and efficient, and for too long they haven't gotten it. For
    most Americans, a college loan or a Social Security check represents a
    common border with the best ideals and goals of our country. We all
    count to some extent on our Government to protect the environment, to
    provide education and health care and other basic needs. But de-

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    mocracy can become quickly an empty phrase, if those who are elected to
    serve cannot meet the needs of the people except with Government that
    costs too much or is too slow or too arrogant or too unresponsive.
        Finally, let me stress that this performance review, as I said at
    the beginning, is not about politics. Programs passed by both Democratic
    Presidents and Republican Presidents, voted on by Members of Congress of
    both parties, and supported by the American people at the time are being
    undermined by an inefficient and outdated bureaucracy and by our huge
    debt. For too long the basic functioning of the Government has gone
    unexamined. We want to make improving the way Government does business a
    permanent part of how Government works, regardless of which party is in
    power.
        It isn't written anywhere that government can't be thrifty or
    flexible or entrepreneurial. Increasingly, most government is, and it is
    time the Federal Government follows the example set by the most
    innovative State and local leaders and by the many huge private sector
    companies that have had to go through the same sort of searching
    reexamination over the last decade, companies that have downsized and
    streamlined and become more customer friendly and, as a result, have had
    much, much more success.
        In short, it's time our Government adjusted to the real world,
    tightened its belt, managed its affairs in the context of an economy
    that is information based, rapidly changing, and puts a premium on speed
    and function and service, not rules and regulations.
        Americans voted for a change last November. They want better schools
    and health care and better roads and more jobs, but they want us to do
    it all with a Government that works better on less money and is more
    responsive. The American people may not know specifically how to do it,
    although many of them have good particular ideas, but I'm confident our
    people are willing to try new ways and they want us to experiment. They
    want us to do things that have worked in other contexts now in the
    National Government, and that's what we are here to do today.
        I thank the Vice President for his willingness to lead this effort.
    I thank the Members of Congress who are here and those who are not who
    are supporting us. And I earnestly enlist the support of the American
    people and especially the employees of the United States Government in
    this important effort.
        I'd like now to introduce the Vice President, who will be in charge
    of this effort of performance review for the next 6 months, for his
    statement.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:07 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building.