This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release April 7, 1997

         VICE PRESIDENT SAYS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WORKING BETTER
                Asks Reinventors From Across Country How 
                 To Prepare for 21st Century Government

        In a town hall meeting that brought together leaders in

reinvention from across the country, Vice President Al Gore today (4/7) said federal employees are making significant progress toward providing better service to the American people and asked for their ideas about how to create a 21st century government. Vice President Gore heads the National Performance Review, which is dedicated to making the federal government work better and cost less.

"These first four years of reinvention have brought some real accomplishments, but we have just begun to fight," said Vice President Gore at the 1997 Reinvention Revolution Conference: Strategies and Tactics For the 21st Century. "We knew it would be a challenge when we took on this job, and President Clinton and I are committed to see this through with you. The era of better government has begun."

Eight hundred reinvention and management experts, including representatives from the federal government's best performance-based organizations, are attending the three-day conference (April 7-9) at the Natcher Center in Bethesda, MD. Vice President Gore's town hall meeting was broadcast live, via satellite, to federal government locations nationwide. Federal employees from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, took part in the discussion portion of the town hall meeting through an interactive satellite hookup.

Vice President Gore said that a Hart/Teeter poll shows for the first time that confidence in the federal government has begun to rise. Those results are echoed in the results of customer surveys of 150 federal departments and agencies. Initial results from the surveys, which will be published soon, indicate that the federal government is working better and that Americans are beginning to notice. For example:

100% of U.S. Customs Service telephone calls are answered in 60 seconds or less;

100% of inquires to the Federal Emergency Management Agency 1-800 customer help line were answered in one call following natural disasters in New York and Pennsylvania;

91% of first class letters are delivered the next day in 96 regions by the Postal Service (measured for the second consecutive quarter).

"When we empower our federal employees, they get results," said Vice President Gore. He said reinventors must continue to identify problems and frame solutions for a 21st century government that is effective, efficient, and responsive to the American people.