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Reinvention Highlights

Your government is changing dramatically so that it makes sense and serves you better. Here's what the Clinton-Gore Administration is doing to deliver on promises made three years ago:

"THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT IS OVER"

Government has reduced its workforce by nearly 240,000 as of January 1996. Thirteen of the 14 departments have reduced the size of their workforce; the Justice Department grew because of the Administration's fight against crime and drugs.
We've cut government the right way by eliminating what you don't need -- bloated headquarters, layers of managers, outdated field offices, and ridiculous red tape and rules.
We've saved and improved the parts you want -- Social Security, our National Park system, and other agencies that protect you and your family.
We're closing nearly 2,000 obsolete field offices and have already eliminated nearly 200 programs and agencies, like the Tea-Tasters Board, the Bureau of Mines, and wool and mohair subsidies.

WE'RE RADICALLY CHANGING GOVERNMENT

Inside the federal government, radical changes are taking place to make it work better and cost nearly $118 billion less than it used to:

Government workers can now buy $4 staplers because we've cut out the red tape that ran the cost up to $54 in the past.
We've negotiated better deals for services that the government uses a lot and saved a lot of money in the process, like $3.62 for a three-pound FedEx delivery instead of $27. And as little as 2 cents a minute for long-distance calls instead of 16 cents a minute.
Government workers are seeing much less of the illogical and bizarre rules and regulations:
One-third of the federal workforce used to write rules for and micromanage the other two-thirds. of many of those jobs and are convincing agencies to trust their workers to use their common sense.
We're cutting out superfluous layers of managers. We've eliminated nearly 54,000 supervisors -- and a few layers.
In some cases, the Defense Department used to spend more on getting approval for employees to travel than it did on the travel itself. Now they're testing new automated systems that make sense and will save over $100 million a year.
With new tools like the Line Item Veto and the ability to pursue people who are seriously delinquent in their debts to the federal government, we'll be able to do a better job of safeguarding taxpayer dollars.

WE'RE SERVING PEOPLE BETTER

President Clinton told federal agencies to make customer service to the public equal to the best in business. Over 200 agencies have committed to meeting more than 3,000 standards.

The Social Security Administration stunned the business world last year by coming in first in an independent survey on the country's best 1-800 telephone service.
We're changing the Blue Pages in the phone book so if you want a passport, you will look up "passport," without having to know you get it from the State Department.
Agencies are working together to provide unique services for you:
Veterans in New York can access Social Security and Veterans Services with one-stop service;
You can go to the "Trading Posts" that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have set up to get maps, fishing information, and guide permits all in one place and at times that are convenient to you.
In Houston, small business owners can go to the U.S. General Store to get information from federal, state, and local governments and even apply for loans.
Or just stay home and do government business on the Internet. You can do everything from signing on to the U.S. Business Advisor to get answers to questions, to downloading IRS forms, or filling out a Small Business Administration loan form.

WE'RE CHANGING THE WAY WE TREAT BUSINESSES

President Clinton and Vice President Gore told government regulators to cut obsolete regulations and to start acting like partners. Agencies are eliminating 16,000 pages of regulations and dramatically simplifying another 31,000.

We're doing it the right way -- rewarding companies that cooperate with us. But for those companies that don't work with us to ensure the public's safety and protect our environment, we will apply every penalty and sanction that the law allows.
The Health Care Finance Administration eliminated the Physician Attestation Form. This ended the filing of 11 million forms each year and saved doctors 200,000 hours of time.
The Department of Agriculture dropped three million pages of government forms.
We're slashing the regulatory and administrative burden of government on citizens and businesses by nearly $28 billion a year.

WE'RE CHANGING THE WAY WE WORK WITH COMMUNITIES

We're letting states try new ways to reform health care and welfare so they can see what works best by focusing on results, not red tape. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have:

Created more than 100 federal-local partnerships to focus on the needs of individual communities. These partnerships allow community residents to implement plans to solve what they -- not Washington -- see as their biggest problems.
Approved welfare demonstration projects in more than 40 states in the three years before President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill.
Approved 13 comprehensive Medicaid reform demonstrations in partnerships with states to expand coverage to 2.2 million low-income uninsured Americans.
Signed agreements with two states -- Connecticut and Oregon -- to pilot new ways of doing business with less burden, and dramatically streamlined planning and other processes in a range of programs in other states.