THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

The President has sent fiscal year 1996 budget amendments to the Congress to help implement the second stage of the Administration's Reinventing Government initiative.

These proposals, which are assumed in the President's 1996 Budget, would reduce the pending requests for 1996 appropriations by $3.1 billion. Over a 5-year period (fiscal 1996-2000),these budget amendments would reduce budget authority by $7.9 billion.

The Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency, would establish Performance Partnerships with States and local governments. These Partnerships would consolidate funding streams and eliminate overlapping authorities, create funding incentives to reward desirable results, and reduce micromanagement and wasteful paperwork.

Budget amendments for the Department of Transportation reflect the consolidation of the Department's infrastructure-related programs into a single unified program and a Departmental reorganization into three major areas: intermodal transportation, aviation, and the Coast Guard.

A proposal for the Department of Energy would permit the Secretary to draw down and sell up to 7 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to fund decommissioning of the Weeks Island site and operations and maintenance activities of other Strategic Petroleum Preserve facilities.

Also transmitted are proposals that reflect the phase-out and termination of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the transfer of relevant areas of oversight to the Departments of Justice, Labor, and Transportation, and the Federal Trade Commission.

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