    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [April 4, 1995]
    [Pages 455-456]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on the Buyout Program for Federal Employees
    April 4, 1995

        More than 2 years ago, I promised to fix the Federal Government. I
    was firmly convinced that we could do more with less, that we could
    create a Government that was leaner but not meaner, and that we could
    make Government our partner rather than a problem.
        I established the National Performance Review and put Vice President
    Gore in charge. He and his team have helped to transform Government, to
    cut bureaucracy and redtape, and to find ways to give the American
    people the service they deserve. At the same time, my economic plan is
    bringing down the deficit by more than $600 billion, and we are
    proposing another $81 billion in deficit reduction in the budget I
    recently sent to Congress.
        A major element of my strategy was my commitment to streamline and
    cut the Federal work force. For too long in Washington, we have had too
    many layers of bureaucracy, too many workers whose main job was to check
    on the work of other workers rather than to perform useful

    [[Page 456]]

    work themselves. As the National Performance Review noted, we had good
    people trapped in bad systems. I promised to cut the work force, and
    that's what I'm doing. Through our efforts, we have already cut the work
    force by 102,000 positions and we are on track to cut it by a total of
    272,900 positions, bringing it to its smallest size since John Kennedy
    was President.
        While committed to cutting the work force, we want to do it in a
    humane way. We faced the same dilemma that confronted many private
    companies; they needed to downsize but wanted to avoid firing large
    numbers of loyal employees. Many of them have given people an incentive
    to leave by offering ``buyouts.'' We wanted to do the same.
        Early last year, Congress approved my request to allow non-Defense
    agencies to offer buyouts of up to $25,000 a person. The Defense
    Department and a few other agencies already could offer buyouts under
    existing law. Because normal attrition will help us downsize in the
    future, we offered buyouts only until March 31, 1995, which was last
    Friday.
        Looking back, I can safely say that our buyout program has been a
    huge success. It achieved what we had hoped: to help us cut the work
    force in a fiscally responsible and humane way.
        To reduce the work force by 102,000 positions by the end of fiscal
    1994, we offered about 70,000 buyouts. Several non-DOD agencies have
    offered deferred buyouts that will take place between now and March
    1997. Defense will be using buyouts as it continues to downsize through
    1999. Counting those, we expect to buy out another 84,000 workers
    through 1997 as we reduce the work force by a total of 272,900
    positions.
        The buyouts were not offered in a random fashion, however. We
    targeted them to reduce the layers of bureaucracy and micro-management
    that were tying Government in knots. We made sure that departments and
    agencies tied their buyout strategies to their overall plans to
    streamline their bureaucracies. As a result, almost 70 percent of our
    buyouts in the non-Defense agencies have gone to people at higher grade
    levels, such as managers.
        I'm proud that our buyout program was so successful. It shows that
    we can, in fact, create a Government that works better and costs less.