    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [September 7, 1993]
    [Pages 1444-1447]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Report of the National Performance Review and an
    Exchange With Reporters
    September 7, 1993

        The President. Mr. Vice President and members of the Cabinet,
    distinguished guests, Mrs. Gore, Senator Gore, thank you for coming. To
    all of you from the Federal Government and from the private sector who
    worked on this report and all of you who care about seeing it
    implemented, I think we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the
    Vice President for the difficult and thorough work which has been done
    and for the outstanding product which has been produced. My gratitude is
    great also to the staff of the National Performance Review and to the
    employees of the Federal Government and the people in the private sector
    who helped us to do this and to the Cabinet members who have supported
    it.
        I will say I had the opportunity to read this report in draft over
    the weekend. I read it very carefully. I read some sections of it more
    than once. And if the report is any indication of where we're going,
    then the future looks bright indeed, because this is an oxymoron; this
    is a Government report that's fun to read. [Laughter] It's well written.
    It's interesting. It's compelling, and it is hopeful.
        I ran for President because I wanted to get America on the move and
    I wanted to pull our country together. And it became quickly apparent to
    me in the campaign that the feelings I had developed not only as a
    citizen but as a Governor over the previous 12 years were widely shared
    by others. It's hard for the National Government to take a leadership
    role, even a partnership role, in bringing America together and putting
    America on the move when people have no confidence in the operations of
    the Government, when they don't believe they get good value for the
    dollars they give to the Government in taxes, when they don't believe
    that they're being treated like customers, when they don't really feel
    that they are the bosses in this great democratic enterprise.
        And so, 6 months ago, I asked the Vice President to embark on a
    risky adventure, to see if we could make the Government work better and
    cost less, to serve our people better, and to, as important as anything
    else, rebuild the confidence of the American people in this great public
    enterprise.
        Our Founders clearly understood that every generation would have to
    reinvent the Government, and they knew that long before the Government
    was nearly as big or cumbersome or bureaucratic or far-reaching as it is
    today. Thomas Jefferson said, laws and institutions must go hand in hand
    with the progress of human mind as that becomes more developed, more
    enlightened, as new discoveries are made and new truths discovered and
    manners and opinions change. With the change of circumstances,
    institutions must advance also to keep pace with the time.
        That is what the Vice President and this group tried to do, to
    listen and to learn from people who best understand how to make
    Government work better. This report reflects the practical experiences
    of Federal employees whose best efforts have too often been smothered in
    redtape, business people who have streamlined their own companies, State
    and local officials who are reinventing government at the grassroots,
    and concerned citizens who deserve and demand more value for their tax
    dollars.

    [[Page 1445]]

        To meet the challenges of the global economy and to better use new
    technology, our most successful companies have been through this
    process, many of them starting more than a decade ago: eliminating
    unnecessary layers of management, empowering frontline workers, becoming
    more responsive to their customers, and seeking constantly to improve
    the products they make, the services they provide, and the people they
    employ.
        Meanwhile, I have seen too little of this happen nationally. I do
    want to say that there are many reasons for this. Government, as we all
    know, has too often a monopoly on the money of the American people and
    on those who have to be its customers. Government also does not have the
    pressure from time to time to change that the private sector does, so
    that what we have today, as the Vice President said, is a lot of good
    people trapped in bad systems. We still have a Government that's largely
    organized on a top-down, bureaucratic, industrial model when we're in an
    information age. And very often, it is just easier to keep on doing what
    you have been doing.
        I want to say, though, that we not only have the models that the
    Vice President mentioned--the terrific work done in Texas by Governor
    Richards and the comptroller, John Sharp, who's here with us today; the
    work that I started when I was Governor of my State, and we had the
    first comprehensive statewide quality management program in the
    country--but also we have something else to be even more hopeful for and
    that is that in spite of all the obstacles, there are stunning examples
    of Federal employees succeeding in this environment. The thing I want to
    encourage all of you to do is to actually read this report. It's not
    very long. It is fun to read, and it will reassure you that there are
    people out here who are making productivity improvements, who are giving
    you value for dollar, who are trying to save money, and who are proving,
    most important of all, that we can do this on a sweeping basis all
    across the Government.
        Make no mistake about this: This is one report that will not gather
    dust in a warehouse. I will challenge every concerned American to read
    it. I will discuss it in great detail with the Members of the Congress.
    I will ask people to help us to pass those programs which have to be
    passed through Congress and to implement those things which must be done
    by the executive branch. This program makes sense. It's going to work.
    We're going to do it.
        There are a lot of places in this report where it says ``the
    President should,'' ``the President should,'' ``the President should.''
    Well, let me tell you something, I've read it, and where it says ``the
    President should,'' the President will.
        You know, everybody knows that we've got a big budget deficit. Most
    of us know we, ironically, also have got an investment deficit. The two
    are not unrelated. We don't have enough money to invest in the growth of
    the economy and the development of our people because we've spent too
    much money on other things and because we have refused to change. The
    key to remedying both the budget deficit and the investment deficit is
    to overcome the performance deficit in the Federal Government. And we
    intend to make a beginning on that.
        There's no reason that we can't have a post office where you always
    get served within 5 minutes of the time you walk up to the counter; why
    you can't have an IRS that always gives you the right answer and takes
    your phone call; why you can't have a Government that pays no more for a
    hammer or a pair of pliers, or more importantly, for a personal computer
    than you'd pay at a local commercial outlet.
        The Vice President and I are going to work with the Cabinet to find
    ways to make the Government more responsive and to implement this
    report. We're going to rely on the innovations of our leaders in the
    Cabinet. For example, under Secretary Cisneros' leadership, the
    Department of Housing and Urban Development is finding new ways to
    empower citizens not to expand bureaucracy. The Department is determined
    to eliminate 75 different rules and statutes that make it more difficult
    to build housing and to redevelop communities and determined to do more
    to help people who live in public housing have control over their own
    destinies instead of being controlled by mindless rules and regulations
    and decisions made by people an awful long way from where they live.
        We have other community initiatives that we are supporting for
    States and cities and towns: community policing, citizens patrols, and
    other special programs to keep young people out of trouble. All those
    things have to spring up from the local level, and there shouldn't be
    Federal rules and regulations getting in the way. States and cities and
    towns applying for funds for community development and assistance to the
    home-

    [[Page 1446]]

    less will be required now to submit only one application and one report,
    not the seven that have been required.
        Under the Attorney General's leadership, the Justice Department is
    finding new ways to collect more than $14 billion that delinquent
    debtors owe the Government. Those who are able to pay, should. About 20
    percent of the money owed the Federal Government today is delinquent.
    It's time we collected on the bills.
        Under Secretary Bob Reich's leadership, the Labor Department will
    offer one-stop career service centers to help their customers make
    better use of the presently bewildering array of 150 different
    employment and training programs. There is a gripping story in this
    report of someone who lost their job in a company because of global
    competition, then got hired again by the same company and lost this job
    a second time because of cutbacks in the defense budget. If the person
    had quit the first time, they could have gotten job training under the
    Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, but because they quit and went back to
    work, which was the right thing to do, and lost their jobs a second time
    before there was a defense conversion plan in place to train people who
    lost their jobs--the second time, the same guy couldn't get any job
    training.
        I could give you lots of examples of that. We are going to fix that.
    We're going to put these programs together and recognize that all
    Americans need job training. The Labor Department ought to provide it.
    Instead of providing people to push papers around to figure out how to
    keep people out of 150 different programs, there ought to be one that
    all Americans can participate in.
        Under Secretary Mike Espy's leadership, the Agriculture Department
    is concentrating on six key functions: commodity programs, rural
    development, nutrition, conservation, food quality, and research. This
    will allow the Agriculture Department to consolidate from 42 to 30
    Agencies and cut administrative costs by more than $200 million a year.
        This just isn't about changing our Government; it's about changing
    our country. We reinvent the Government. We're doing something that is
    essential to reviving our economy, restoring our confidence in
    Government, and therefore, permitting us once again to be one American
    community.
        Last month, we passed an important milepost when Congress passed the
    economic plan that will begin to pay down an enormous deficit we
    inherited, cut wasteful spending, and make investments we need in our
    people, our jobs, our educational and technological future.
        In the weeks ahead, we have other challenges to face from reforming
    our health care system to provide security for every family, to opening
    new markets for our products and services abroad so that we can start
    creating jobs again. But to accomplish any of these goals, we have to
    revolutionize the Government itself so that the American people trust
    the decisions that are made and trust us to do the work that Government
    has to do. The entire agenda of change depends upon our ability to
    change the way we do our own business with the people's money. That is
    the only way we can restore the faith of our citizens. An effective
    Government can offer people opportunities they need to take greater
    responsibilities for their own lives and to rebuild their families,
    their communities, and our beloved country.
        We ask the support of Americans from every walk of life, from every
    party, from every region. The Government is broken, and we intend to fix
    it. But we can't do it unless we all understand that this isn't a
    Democratic goal or a Republican goal. This is an American imperative,
    and we all need to be a part of it.
        I look forward to the day when every American can cite some example
    that he or she has personally experienced in this revolution in the way
    Government works, a program that is paid for not by stopping something
    worthy or raising new money or increasing the deficit but by stopping
    something that didn't need to be done anymore. I look forward to a day
    when you call the IRS and ask a question, and they give you an answer,
    and you know it's the right one; when you ask your children what they
    think about the Government and they can all cite something the
    Government has done to make their lives better and done in a good and
    efficient way.
        If that happens, we'll all be in debt for a long time to the Vice
    President and his staff and to all the others who participated in this
    report. I think they did a great job. Now it's time for the rest of us
    to do a great job and implement the recommendations so that we can
    change the way the American people feel about their Government and
    change the role that the Government plays in our lives for the better.

    [[Page 1447]]

        Thank you very much. God bless you.
        Q. Mr. President, why do you think this is going to be any more
    successful than other attempts that have been made in the past and
    failed?
        The President. I think there are two or three reasons. First of all,
    frankly, this is a better report. It's not just a report in which one
    group of Americans tells another group of Americans, ``Here are big
    things we don't need to do anymore. Let's just stop doing.'' This is a
    report which says, ``The whole way the Government operates is
    incompatible with the world in which we're living, and we can change
    it.''
        I think if you read it, this is qualitatively different from past
    reports. This is a real generational change in the attitude about what
    should be done in Government and how it should work. So I think that
    will make a big difference.
        Secondly, I think there is more public support for this than there
    has been in the past that runs across all partisan lines, Republicans,
    Democrats, independents.
        And thirdly, there is a President here who will do more than talk
    about it. I intend to do what I can to implement it. I've asked the Vice
    President to give me a set of recommendations, starting immediately
    about which things we can change by Executive order, which things we
    need to go to Congress with, and how we're going to go to Congress with
    these recommendations and push them through. So it's a very different
    thing.
        Finally, I think there's a lot more support in the Congress than
    there has been in the past. I think a lot of people in the Congress now
    realize that if we're going to close the investment deficit, if we're
    going to close the budget deficit, we've got to close the performance
    deficit in Government, that it just doesn't work. And the harder they
    work--and let me just say this: The Congress, for example, has spent
    about 40 percent more time on the job this year than they did last year.
    But you can work hard and hard and hard, and if the American people
    don't have confidence in the ultimate enterprise, it's still hard for
    the Members of Congress to get credit for the work they're doing because
    the ultimate product is not going to function very well. So I think
    those are the reasons that this won't be like past reports.
        Q. Do Members of Congress know about this yet, Mr. President, and
    what are they telling you back when you tell them about this proposal?
        The Vice President. Let me respond to that. We're getting a lot of
    tremendous support from the Congress. Let me point out that some of the
    pioneers in this effort have been in the Congress. The chairmen and
    ranking members of the two principal committees on how the Government
    operates are all very supportive.
        There will be some opposition. You know that, and we couldn't change
    what needs to be changed without running into opposition. But the ground
    has shifted. The world has changed. The American people are demanding
    that we change the way the Federal Government operates. It doesn't work
    well now. It costs too much money; it performs very poorly. We want to
    make it work better and cost less by implementing the recommendations of
    this report. We fully intend to do that.
        Q. What about--get Congress to go along with the biennial budget?
    Will you be able to get Congress to go along with the biennial budget?
        The President. I hope so. Well, in times past, over a majority of
    the Congress has supported a biennial budget. It can't be very
    satisfying for them to have to spend all their time doing that when they
    can spend more time evaluating how these programs work.
        Q. What about the unions, Mr. President?
        The Vice President. They've been very supportive. They've been very
    supportive. All three of the principal ones have endorsed it.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 10:20 a.m. on the South Lawn
    at the White House. The exchange portion of this item could not be
    verified because the tape was incomplete.