    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [October 26, 1993]
    [Pages 1824-1826]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing Federal Procurement Reforms and Spending Cut
    Proposals
    October 26, 1993

        Ladies and gentlemen, the Presidential memorandum on electronic
    commerce which I have just signed is, as the Vice President said, a
    direct result of the work done by the National Performance Review. It
    will make our antiquated paper-based procurement system accessible to
    anybody with a personal computer. It will open up a world of
    possibilities to small businesses in America and drive down costs to
    taxpayers.
        This demonstrates why the National Performance Review has been and
    will continue to be a success. The NPR has become a true action plan for
    unprecedented cost cutting and reinvention across the entire
    governmental process. It's dedicated to reforms that will give us a
    Government that actually does work better and cost less.
        We want to give the taxpayer a more efficient Government, to reduce
    the deficit, to provide new resources so that we can also respond to
    urgent national needs. The proposals we announce today meet every one of
    those objectives. By sending to Congress a bill that produces billions
    in savings, we will now be able to finance an expansion of our anticrime
    activities at a time when the country desperately needs it. Reinventing
    Government is working, and I want to say a special word of thanks to the
    Vice President for his outstanding leadership on this project.
        Today I am sending to Congress a significant package of spending
    cuts, totaling $10 billion, based on the National Performance Review and

    [[Page 1825]]

    fulfilling a promise I made to further reduce the deficit by spending
    cuts in that amount--sending, excuse me, spending cuts in that amount to
    Congress that could be passed in this calendar year. The Government
    reform act phases out Federal support for wool, mohair, and honey;
    consolidates environmental satellite programs; streamlines the
    operations of the Departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban
    Development; reduces costly regulation; and proposes other reforms
    reflecting more than 20 deficit-cutting recommendations of NPR. These
    cuts are part of our commitment to put our economic house in order.
        With the passage of the economic plan last summer containing about
    $500 billion in deficit reduction, we've helped to drive down interest
    rates to historic low levels to keep inflation down. This has meant more
    private sector job growth in one year than in the previous 4; increases
    in housing starts; and in mid-October, we know now that auto sales have
    climbed by 18.4 percent, the largest amount in several years. Orders for
    heavy equipment continue to rise. While we have still clearly got a very
    long way to go and many more good-paying jobs to produce, this recovery
    is beginning to shift into a more promising phase. That's why our
    progress on continued deficit reduction is very important. We have to
    maintain the Government's credibility in holding down the deficit and
    keeping interest rates down in order to provide a stable climate for
    long-term growth.
        We must now move to achieve real savings through procurement reform.
    While the private sector is becoming more flexible, more innovative,
    Government has become in many ways over the last 10 years even more
    bureaucratic. At a time when all businesses are looking for better
    suppliers and lower prices, the Government is too often losing suppliers
    and actually paying higher prices by putting up so many costly hurdles
    and requirements in our procurement system. Procurement waste is costing
    the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, and it has to stop. We must
    fundamentally reform this system, saving billions of dollars and using
    that money in ways that meet the basic needs of the American people.
        Senator Glenn and Congressman Dellums and Congressman Conyers and
    the other distinguished Members of Congress who have joined us here
    today have introduced very important procurement reform legislation
    which will make it easier for agencies to buy the same commercial
    products ordinary consumers and businesses buy off the shelf. It will
    cut down enormously on paperwork. It will speed deliveries. It will
    provide new incentives for small businesses.
        At the same time, the Department of Defense has requested, with my
    support, immediate congressional authorization to undertake seven pilot
    projects to reform their own procurement processes. These projects will
    allow the Department to demonstrate innovative approaches to acquiring
    commercial jet aircraft and aircraft engines as well as items like
    clothing and medical supplies.
        Cost-saving innovations like these are critical to our ability to
    meet future military needs within our budgetary limits. I might say that
    the Department of Defense has been so confident of these things that,
    after we had completed our bottoms-up review, the leaders at the Defense
    Department said they thought one of the ways that we could actually meet
    our defense needs over the next 5 years within the tough budgetary
    restrictions imposed would be to require these kinds of procurement
    reforms. And I want to thank the Department of Defense for the
    aggressive attitude that they have taken toward this, and we all look
    forward to the results they will be achieving now.
        Procurement reform also will enhance national security. Procurement
    regulations today virtually force defense contractors to develop
    business practices and products that are unique only to the military.
    This division of industry in the United States into defense and
    nondefense sectors results in higher prices to the Government, less
    purchasing flexibility to the armed services, and too often actually
    denies our military state-of-the-art technologies found in the
    commercial marketplace. Today 5 of the top 10 U.S. semiconductor
    producers refuse defense business because of the burdens and special
    requirements the Government imposes.
        Finally, procurement can work by allowing the Government to run more
    like a business, buying products based on price and other important
    considerations such as how well a supplier has performed in the past. We
    want the marketplace, not the bureaucracy, to determine what we buy and
    what we pay.
        According to the NPR report, if Congress does its part in passing
    the legislation and we do our part in making it work, we could save more
    than $5 billion in the first year of this

    [[Page 1826]]

    reform alone. We ought to take some of that money that your Government
    has been wasting all these years and use it to uphold Government's first
    responsibility, which is to keep our citizens safe here at home. With
    that money, we can make our crime bill even stronger. We can make sure
    we put at least 50,000 police officers on the street over the next 5
    years. We can help States to build more boot camps so we can take young
    criminals off the street and teach them more respect for the law and
    give them a chance to avoid a life in prison and live a life of
    constructive citizenship. We can have more drug courts, like the one the
    Attorney General started in Florida and the one our administration is
    helping to launch here in DC, so we can stop sending tens of thousands
    of criminal addicts back onto the street every year where they'll commit
    more crimes if they don't get treatment first.
        I want Congress to pass this crime bill and pass the savings I've
    asked to help pay for it. I want them to know that if these cuts aren't
    passed, I'm going to come back with more cuts. And if those aren't
    passed, I'll come back with still more. I'll keep coming back until we
    have the money we need to make America safer.
        Procurement reform shares a common border with many of our most
    important goals: saving taxpayer money, reinventing Government,
    strengthening our military, improving our economy. But in a larger sense
    the steps we are taking here today are also about proving to the
    American people that we can honestly and seriously deal with the issues
    that matter most to them and that for too long too many have felt
    powerless to change. We can and will cut the deficit. We can and will
    run a Government that works better and costs less. We can and will turn
    those savings to helping America, including helping more Americans be
    safer in their homes and on their streets.
        I'd like to close by introducing to you Lieutenant Colonel Brad
    Orton. He has a story to tell that reveals the price we continue to pay
    by doing nothing in this important area. During the Gulf war, the Air
    Force placed an emergency order for 6,000 Motorola commercial radio
    receivers. But because Motorola's commercial unit lacked the record-
    keeping systems required to show the Pentagon that it was getting the
    lowest available price, the deal reached an impasse. The issue was
    resolved in a remarkable way that Lieutenant Colonel Orton will now
    describe, involving the Japanese Government. This should never happen
    again.
        Today is about taking responsibility for doing better, working
    together to build a better America. We can do this, Congress, the
    administration, the American people.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:26 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. The memorandum is listed in Appendix D at the end of
    this volume.