Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON IMPOSES GOVERNMENT CUTS
President Clinton, reiterating his theme of shared sacrifice before his State of the Union address next week, Wednesday issued executive orders to cut 100,000 federal jobs and reduce the government's overhead costs by 14 percent over the next four years.The president also announced restrictions on use of government cars and planes, dining rooms and health clubs, and called for the elimination of "hundreds of unproductive" federal advisory commissions "that have spread across this government like kudzu," a reference to the legendary, fast-growing vine.
The cost-cutting initiatives are estimated to save $9 billion over four years, Clinton said in telling Cabinet members that the executive orders are a "good beginning" in finding ways "to reinvent the way government works and relates to people."
After announcing his executive orders at the White House, Clinton called upon some of the Cabinet for testimonials about what they had discovered.
Labor Secretary Robert Reich volunteered that eliminating his executive dining room meant that "our executives actually had to eat in the cafeteria with normal employees" and created "an awful lot of interactions that had not happened before." Reich said a "good idea" on unemployment insurance and job training "came from an employee down in the bottom of the department who had not been heard from for years."
Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said she chopped her personal staff by 40 percent. She said she probably would reduce it another 10 percent within the year and still "have a faster turnaround time on everything we do."
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros apparently found a lot he didn't like at HUD. He said he had frozen promotions and hiring, canceled magazine and newspaper subscriptions, consolidated internal newsletters and cut back on cellular phones and pagers.
Cisneros also took a cue from his boss and said he would start a "reinventing-HUD project" that would streamline operations and "establish measurable, attainable goals."