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                          THE WHITE HOUSE
                   OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
   ____________________________________________________________
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              CONTACT: 202-456-7035

WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994

VICE PRESIDENT, GOLDIN MEET WITH NASA REINVENTION LEADERS Gore Hears About Streamlined Programs That Empower Employees

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore and NASA Administrator Dan Goldin today (6/15) met with National Aeronautics and Space Administration reinvention leaders who have cut bureaucratic red tape and empowered their employees. The Vice President also presented to representatives of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, the National Performance Review Hammer Award for exemplifying the principles of making government work better and cost less.

"These success stories prove that, together, we can and will give the taxpayers a space program that costs less, with less central control and mistrust, and less red tape and bureaucracy. Instead, we will put our customers, the American people, first by making sure that their tax dollars are being put to the very best possible use," Vice President Gore said.

Representatives from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, who received the Hammer Award are part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), the largest civil information program in the world. It is the key to translating data from the Mission to Planet Earth spacecraft into usable information for scientists, researchers, educators, and policy makers around the world. When fully operational, it will collect and make available, in less than one year, more environmental data than all of the previous U.S. earth observation spacecraft since the beginning of the space age.

Participants of EOSDIS were honored for creating a system that will offer unprecedented ease of access and widespread dissemination of this information for its customers; allowing them to take part in the design of the program which is built to evolve as technologies and enduser requirements change; and the use of innovative procurement techniques to ensure that the technology remains current and that prices remain competitive.

Administrator Goldin said, "With our efforts to increase access to environmental data, NASA has stepped up to the Administration's challenge of looking at new ways of doing business. This part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System is a clear example of how NASA can empower its employees and cut red tape and better serve its customers, the American people," Goldin said.

The Hammer 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.

Reinvention efforts at NASA are part 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 costsavings reforms. About 80 percent of those recommendations already are being put in place across the federal government.