THE WHITE HOUSE
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
_______________________________________________________
For Immediate Release Wednesday, April 6, 1994
GORE, BROWN MEET WITH COMMERCE REINVENTION LEADERS
Vice President Hears About Streamlined Processes,
Improved Customer Service Standards
Urges All Departments, Agencies To Continue
Making Government Work Better, Cost Less
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore and Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown today (4/6) met with Department of
Commerce reinvention leaders from Newark, NJ, and
Baltimore, MD, who have streamlined government
bureaucracy and improved customer service standards,
and presented to them National Performance Review
Hammer Awards for exemplifying the principles of making
government work better and cost less.
"At the Department of Commerce, you are making a
difference when it comes to improving government
effectiveness and efficiency. You are putting your
customers, the American taxpayers, first, and giving
them the best service possible," the Vice President
said.
Commerce Secretary Brown said, "These success
stories show that, together, we can and will give the
taxpayers a government with less cost, less
bureaucracy, less central control and mistrust, less
mind-numbing regulations, and much, much better
service."
The Vice President praised the department for
issuing "permission slips" that convey delegation of
authority and responsibility to all of its employees.
Commerce employees who previously felt powerless to fix
problems can now to take control of their jobs while
being held responsible for the results. "Empowered to
make decisions and freed from red tape, you are
achieving incredible results," he said.
Highlighting the work of some of the department's
reinvention leaders, the Vice President talked with
employees from the Census Bureau in Newark, NJ, and the
Export Assistance Center in Baltimore, MD.
Joann Burns, an employment statistic gatherer for
the Census Bureau, explained a new system they use
which has increased the accuracy and efficiency of
reporting data. Burns, who was recently featured on
the MacNeil-Lehrer Report, said the census data she
gathered from interviews with Americans used to go
through an inefficient and cumbersome process before it
could be released. She filled out forms with pencil
and paper which were shipped, along with hundreds of
other census gatherers' data, to a regional field
office where it would be checked for mistakes, then
sent to another location to be input into a mainframe
computer, and finally, transmitted back to this region
where it would be released publicly.
Now Burns and other employees in her office who
are part of the Computer Assisted Statistical
Information Center Team use laptop computers. At the
end of the day, they input their data and send it
through a modem to its final destination. Burns
receives immediate feedback so that she can ask more
precise follow-up questions and, therefore, report more
accurate data on the country's employment and economic
status.
"This new system saves money and time. Using
modern technology, you have made government work better
at less cost," the Vice President told Burns and
Stanley Machett, the Census Bureau designer of the new
computerized system.
The Vice President also talked with
representatives from the Export Assistance Center in
Baltimore, MD. The center is a one-stop, customer-
service driven organization which combines the services
of the Commerce Department, the Small Business
Administration, and the Export-Import Bank so that
people can come to one place, one time, and get the
assistance they need. The Baltimore office deals
primarily with American manufacturing businesses trying
to expand into foreign markets. Steven Hall, a
Commerce Department account specialist, foresaw the
need for this partnership to serve better his
customers.
"The message from business owners and American
customers was clear: they wanted harmonized programs
and services where they could find answers and get
help," the Vice President said. "The Export Assistance
Center is proof that customer-driven government is
becoming a reality."
Representatives from both Commerce Department
offices were presented with the Hammer Award by the
Vice President. The award is given to federal
employees who exemplify the principles of making
government work better and cost less -- those who are
breaking down unnecessary bureaucracy to build a better
government.
In addition to praising the work of the Newark and
Baltimore offices, Vice President Gore commended Paige
Gilbert, a lab manager for the National Institute of
Standards and Technology at the Commerce Department in
Boulder, CO. She helped to simplify the procedures for
recruiting bright students from the University of
Colorado into government careers. By simply paying the
university directly for the students' services, she
eliminated a burdensome approval process.
Reinvention efforts at the Commerce Department are
part of a government wide effort to improve federal
service. On September 11, President Clinton signed an
Executive Order on Setting Customer Service Standards.
It directs the federal government to provide the
highest quality service possible to the American people
-- service that matches or exceeds the best available
in the private sector.
The Executive Order on Customer Service Standards
is a result of the Vice President's National
Performance Review: Creating a Government That Works
Better and Costs Less. The report is a detailed plan
with hundreds of recommendations and cost-savings
reforms. About 80 percent of those recommendations
already are being put in place across the federal
government.
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