Making Government Work Better and Cost Less

ur Administration is working hard to give the American people a government that works better and costs less ... [We] are eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary rules and regulations, shifting more decision-making out of Washington, back to states and local communities.”

—President Bill Clinton

Americans expect and deserve common-sense government—a government that performs well for them, uses their tax dollars wisely, views them as valued customers, does not impose excessive burdens, and makes a positive impact on their lives.

Under the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, this Administration is creating a smaller government that works better and costs less by:

	Reducing the federal workforce by more than 230,000 positions—the smallest federal civilian workforce since John F. Kennedy was President.
	Saving taxpayers $118 billion by cutting wasteful government practices and spending through Vice President Gore’s National Performance Review.
	Eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary government regulations. We are: Reducing regulatory and administrative burdens on the public by $28 billion. Cutting Environmental Protection Agency paperwork requirements by 25%, saving industry some 20 million hours of labor per year. Eliminating over 45% of the Department of Education’s regulations. Cutting 65% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s regulations. Eliminating 50% of the Small Business Administration’s regulations by the end of the year.
	Signing into law the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 to dramatically improve how the federal government purchases items, saving taxpayers $12.3 billion over the next 5 years.
	Published customer service standards at more than 200 departments and agencies so the federal government's customers, the American taxpayers, know what to expect and how to give feedback on the service they have received. Savings over five years (1995-99) from the common sense government initiative will total $108 billion, with another $70 billion in savings over the period of 1996-2000.
	Eliminating, consolidating, and privatizing government. We have eliminated agencies, such as the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of Mines, the Office of Territorial Affairs, and the Administrative Conference of the United States. We also are consolidating hundreds of job training, public health, and environmental programs to allow states and localities to serve their residents better. In addition the Administration is privatizing a number of government functions, including the Naval Petroleum Reserve, the Alaska Power Administration, and certain water facilities owned by the Bureau of Reclamation.
	Forming partnerships with America’s businesses and with state and local governments to change the way government works. For example, we have cut the Small Business Administration loan form from a one-inch thick manual to a one-page document.
	Signing legislation restricting Congress from passing on new mandates to state and local governments without paying for them.
	Signing the Line-Item Veto, in April 1996, to enhance significantly presidential authority to eliminate wasteful spending; allows the President to cancel wasteful special interest projects and targeted tax breaks that benefit special interests.

Building on Our Progress

Vice President Gore, under President Clinton’s leadership, has taken significant steps toward creating a government that not only is smaller, but is also more effective in meeting the needs of the American people. The Clinton Administration is bringing the federal government into the Information Age, cutting red tape and providing quicker and easier access for our citizens. The President’s commitment to balancing the budget requires that we expand the reinvention successes.

These initiatives will provide significant benefits to Americans in either improved service or reduced costs by:

	Continuing to reduce the size of the federal workforce by cutting overhead and unnecessary bureaucracy.
	Creating performance-based organizations with executives hired to get results; tossing out restrictive government rules and making the executives personally accountable for delivering results.
	Improving customer service to give Americans the best service ever from the government.
	Increasing the use of regulatory partnerships with the private sector, abandoning the old way of doing business, and forming alliances with management and labor that focus on results.
	Forging new relationships with communities by creating performance partnerships in which we set goals together, but each community decides how best to meet them.
	Establishing single points of contact for large communities to help solve their problems with the federal government more quickly.

Meeting Our Challenges Protecting Our Values