    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 22, 1995]
    [Pages 733-735]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
    May 22, 1995

        Thank you very much. Mr. Bersoff, thank you for your comments and
    for the outstanding example of the family business you have built to
    such a remarkable extent. Thank you, Sally Katzen.
        Before I begin, as a matter of personal privilege, I would just like
    to say a brief word about the death of my good friend Les Aspin. Hillary
    and I grieve his loss, and along with all other Americans, we thank him
    for the remarkable service he rendered to our country as a distinguished
    Congressman from Wisconsin, as the chairman of the Armed Services
    Committee of the House, as Secretary of Defense, and as head of the
    President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He did a lot of work to
    keep us safe through a turbulent time, and we are all very, very much in
    his debt.
        Let me thank the Members of Congress who are here. You know, I've
    got to say, I was sitting here listening to Mr. Bersoff talk, and I
    thought, it'll be a miracle if we get this on the news tonight, because
    this is something we did without anybody fighting. [Laughter] And the
    real reason this languished around for 5 years was because nobody was
    fighting anybody else about it. And after I got here, I discovered some
    of the best ideas in Washington were not being implemented simply
    because there was no anger attached to them. It's a sad thing to say,
    but it's absolutely right.
        And so, sometimes energy is not behind things that hang around here
    for years, because there's no real brutal conflict. And in that context,
    I want to thank the Members of Congress who are here for overcoming all
    the inertia against consensus--[laughter]--and actually passing a bill
    that everybody was for. And I thank you. I thank Senators Nunn, Roth,
    and Glenn; Representatives Meyers, Sisisky, Peterson, and Davis, all of
    whom are here; and of course, former Congressman Horton and former
    Senator, now Governor, Lawton Chiles for the work that they have done.
        This is a remarkable bill, and I want to talk about what it does.
    But first, let me say that for a bill in which there was not a lot of
    opposition, there was an awful lot of support and input about exactly
    how to do this. People all over our country, big and small businesses,
    organizations from the National Governors' Association to the National
    Association of Towns and Townships to librarians actually testified in
    favor of this bill--what we ought to do and how it ought to be done.
        The legislation recognizes that the private sector is the engine of
    our prosperity, that when we act to protect the environment or the
    health of our people, we ought to do it without unnecessary paperwork,
    maddening redtape, or irrational rules.
        We have to reform our regulatory system in ways that protects the
    larger public interest without strangling business. These changes
    reflect the right way to reform Government. It is very consistent with
    the things that I believe need to be done. In the last 2 years, we have
    already reduced the size of the Federal bureaucracy by more than 100,000
    employees, going down under existing budgets to a reduction of more than
    272,000. And if the last few weeks are any indication, we're about to
    reduce the Government some more.
        This Paperwork Reduction Act helps us to conquer a mountain of
    paperwork that is crushing our people and wasting a lot of time and
    resources and which actually accumulated not because anybody wanted to
    harm the private sector but because we tend to think of good ideas in
    serial form without thinking of how the overall impact of them impacts a
    system that is very dynamic and very sensitive to emerging technologies
    but which Government does not always respond to in the same way.
        I want to say again how much I appreciate the work that Sally Katzen
    and her shop have done. And I want to thank the Congress for enabling
    them to continue on the job.
        In recent months, some others have made similar announcements. Carol
    Browner, at the EPA, announced that she would cut the paperwork
    requirements of the EPA on the private sector by 25 percent. To give you
    an idea of what that means, that is 20 million hours of labor a year.
        We often debate here what we can give the American people. We're
    about to have a debate: Should we give the American people more funds
    for education, more funds for Medicare, or more money back in a tax cut?
    But nothing is more precious, I see as I get older, than your own time.
    And for a Government to give the American people back, at no cost to the
    public interest, 20 million hours, is an extraordinary gift and worth a
    great deal of money and additions to the quality of life.
        The FDA is going to dramatically speed approvals of many different
    kinds of medical devices. The SBA has reduced the inch-thick loan form
    applications to one page.
        Here are some other places we will cut. The Department of
    Agriculture so far has eliminated the need for more than 3 million pages
    of Government forms from a quarter million farmers. The Department of
    Energy took these 3 big binders here, filled with reporting
    requirements, and sliced them to 11 pages--11 pages from those 3 big
    binders. That saved $48 million a year, but it also gave the gift of
    time back to the people who were subject to it.
        The Department of Education required both parents to sign a student
    loan and other financial aid forms. This is impossible in some cases
    when the noncustodial parent is not available. In lots of homes today,
    it's hard for both parents to be in the same place at the same time
    anyway. Now, one parent's signature is all that's required.
        So far, we have eliminated the forms represented in this large stack
    of papers here on the table. When you count all the people and all the
    businesses that have to fill out the forms already eliminated, in one
    year, we've eliminated paper that would stretch end to end from
    Washington, DC, to San Francisco, California.
        To further reduce these burdens, I have directed our agencies to
    continue to review their regulations, to eliminate the outdated and
    streamline the bloated. I have also directed them, whenever possible, to
    cut in half the frequency of reports they require from citizens. For
    example, if they ask for quarterly reports, why don't we just have them
    twice a year instead?
        As we reform, we need not compromise the quality of life or the
    needed oversight from the Government. But the truth is, we can actually
    improve the system by making it less hidebound and by innovating as
    Americans are innovating.
        Today I want to add another dimension to this effort: From this
    point forward, I want all of our agencies to provide for the electronic
    submission of every new Government form or demonstrate to OMB why it
    cannot be done that way. The old way will still be available, but I
    think once people see how fast and efficient electronic filing can be,
    we'll see less paperwork and more of these. So, we're trying to do our
    part to act in good faith the way these Members of Congress intended the
    executive branch to act.
        As you know, these little things store incredible volumes of
    information--incredible. My daughter knows more about it than I do, but
    I'm learning myself, just in the things that we do, incredibly how much
    more we can do and at a tiny fraction of the space involved, not to
    mention the speed. So the more we use electronic transmissions, the more
    we'll all be working quicker and smarter, giving better service to the
    American public, a more efficient Government, and far, far less
    paperwork.

    [[Page 734]]

        I want to say again, the remarkable thing about this effort was that
    at the time we actually got it through the Congress, there was not a
    single dissenting vote. But very often the things we do not do in life
    are the things we all know we should do. That is a principle that
    extends beyond this bill.
        And we owe a great debt of gratitude to the Members of Congress,
    especially those here present, who exercised the leadership to get this
    done, as well as to Governor Chiles and former Congressman Horton for
    the work they did to pave the way. So I would like to ask the Members to
    come up while we sign the bill, and Congressman Horton and Governor
    Chiles to come up as well. Please come up, and we'll do it.
        Thank you very much.

    [At this point, the President signed the bill.]

    [[Page 735]]

        Thank you very much. We're adjourned. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:18 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Ed Bersoff, president
    and chief executive officer, BTG, Inc. S. 244, approved May 22, was
    assigned Public Law No. 104-13.