Reinventing the United
States Government (ReGo)
Progress 1993-1998
Plans 1998-2001
Bob Stone
Italy, May1998
Initial Project Goals
• Bring quality revolution to
government
• Report in six months
• Four or eight years to complete work
Restore Americans’ trust in government
Phase 1: Report to President
• Started six weeks into Clinton Presidency
• Staff of 200 civil servants at White House,
plus teams in every agency
• Advice from business leaders
– focus on customers
– listen to workers
• 1200 recommendations, cutting 252,000
people and $108 billion
• President approved everything
Phase II: 4 years of making
government work better
• Put customers first …
– put in place 4,000 service standards
• Empower employees …
– created 850 labor-management councils
• Cut red tape …
– eliminated 640,000 pages of internal rules
• Create partnerships …
– OSHA, FDA, EPA now partner with
business
Phase II: 4 years making
government cost less
• $137 billion in savings
• Workforce smaller by 371,000
• $31 billion used more effectively by
reinvention laboratories
• 16,000 pages of regulation abolished
Help from Business
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from Wal-Mart ...inventory control
from Citicorp…mortgage servicing
from Disney...customer satisfaction
from GE…cut headquarters
• many others
Regulators partner with
industry
• Starting assumption: Common goals
– Working together is more effective
– Regulators concentrate on-• helping those who want to comply
• going after those who don’t
• Sample results
– safe effective medicines faster to market
– air pollution reduced by 350 million kg
– workplace injuries down
Great new IT tools
• Desktop computers …
– power 2x every 18 months, costs
plummeting
• “Follow me” communications …
– people can work anywhere
• World-wide web …
– retirement estimates on line
• Smart cards …
– payments simpler, cheaper, more secure
Government already uses
IT to serve millions
• 3 million taxpayers file by telephone, 19
million electronically
• 1.5 m students apply for college loans online
• 30 million download forms
• 000’s of government websites
– all laws and regulations
– expert advisors
• Unprecedented inter-agency collaboration
IT challenges ahead
• Security and privacy issues need to be
resolved
• Government web sites need to provide
transactions, not just information
• Create one-stop services for seniors,
students, travelers, businesses
• Access America: By 2000, give everyone
the option of electronic service
Phase III: From examples to
reinvented agencies
• Work with agencies that interact the most with public
and business to get results Americans care about:
– Cut injuries 20 percent in 50,000 hazardous
workplaces
– Increase electronic food stamp payments to 65%
– Cut toxic pollution 75 percent in metal finishing
– Accept 3 million student aid applications
electronically
– Call IRS toll-free line 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week
– Overnight mail delivery 92 percent of time
Our Mission
• In time for the 21st century,
reinvent government to work
better, cost less, and get results
Americans care about.
Our Goal
Restore trust in America’s government
by providing-•Best value for each taxpayer dollar
•Best service for customer and regulated
business
•Best workplace for its employees
•Best legacy for our future
Trust in government
80%
“Trust” is the percentage
of people who say they
trust the government to
do the right thing all or
most of the time”
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1964 1992 1994 1997
Rego Documents at
www.npr.gov
• Businesslike Government, 1997
– Lessons from America’s best companies
• Access America
– Reengineering thru information technology
• Putting Customers First ‘97
– Standards for Serving the American People
• Blair House Papers
– How to lead reinvention
Stone’s Universal truths
Four ideas that apply in any culture
• Workers know work better than managers
or politicians
• Customers know what they want better than
anybody else
• People are capable of things they (and you)
never dreamed of
• Move fast
High Impact Agencies
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Agriculture: Animal/Plant
Health, Food Safety, Food
Stamps, Forest Service
Commerce: Census,
Patents, Weather, Foreign
Commerc’l Svc
DOD: Acquisition Reform
Education: Student Aid
Environmental
Protection
Emergency
Management
HHS: Food & Drugs,
Welfare, Health Care
Financing
Interior: National Parks,
Public Lands
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Justice: Immigration
Labor: Worker Safety
NASA
Office of Personnel Mgt
Postal Service
Small Business Admin.
Social Security Admin.
State: Passports &Visas
Transp.: Fedl Aviation Admin.
Treasury: Customs, Internal
Revenue Service, Financial
Management Service
• Veterans Hospitals & Benefits