THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT _______________________________________________________ For Immediate Release Wednesday, April 6, 1994 GORE, BROWN MEET WITH COMMERCE REINVENTION LEADERS Vice President Hears About Streamlined Processes, Improved Customer Service Standards Urges All Departments, Agencies To Continue Making Government Work Better, Cost Less WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown today (4/6) met with Department of Commerce reinvention leaders from Newark, NJ, and Baltimore, MD, who have streamlined government bureaucracy and improved customer service standards, and presented to them National Performance Review Hammer Awards for exemplifying the principles of making government work better and cost less. "At the Department of Commerce, you are making a difference when it comes to improving government effectiveness and efficiency. You are putting your customers, the American taxpayers, first, and giving them the best service possible," the Vice President said. Commerce Secretary Brown said, "These success stories show that, together, we can and will give the taxpayers a government with less cost, less bureaucracy, less central control and mistrust, less mind-numbing regulations, and much, much better service." The Vice President praised the department for issuing "permission slips" that convey delegation of authority and responsibility to all of its employees. Commerce employees who previously felt powerless to fix problems can now to take control of their jobs while being held responsible for the results. "Empowered to make decisions and freed from red tape, you are achieving incredible results," he said. Highlighting the work of some of the department's reinvention leaders, the Vice President talked with employees from the Census Bureau in Newark, NJ, and the Export Assistance Center in Baltimore, MD. Joann Burns, an employment statistic gatherer for the Census Bureau, explained a new system they use which has increased the accuracy and efficiency of reporting data. Burns, who was recently featured on the MacNeil-Lehrer Report, said the census data she gathered from interviews with Americans used to go through an inefficient and cumbersome process before it could be released. She filled out forms with pencil and paper which were shipped, along with hundreds of other census gatherers' data, to a regional field office where it would be checked for mistakes, then sent to another location to be input into a mainframe computer, and finally, transmitted back to this region where it would be released publicly. Now Burns and other employees in her office who are part of the Computer Assisted Statistical Information Center Team use laptop computers. At the end of the day, they input their data and send it through a modem to its final destination. Burns receives immediate feedback so that she can ask more precise follow-up questions and, therefore, report more accurate data on the country's employment and economic status. "This new system saves money and time. Using modern technology, you have made government work better at less cost," the Vice President told Burns and Stanley Machett, the Census Bureau designer of the new computerized system. The Vice President also talked with representatives from the Export Assistance Center in Baltimore, MD. The center is a one-stop, customer- service driven organization which combines the services of the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, and the Export-Import Bank so that people can come to one place, one time, and get the assistance they need. The Baltimore office deals primarily with American manufacturing businesses trying to expand into foreign markets. Steven Hall, a Commerce Department account specialist, foresaw the need for this partnership to serve better his customers. "The message from business owners and American customers was clear: they wanted harmonized programs and services where they could find answers and get help," the Vice President said. "The Export Assistance Center is proof that customer-driven government is becoming a reality." Representatives from both Commerce Department offices were presented with the Hammer Award by the Vice President. The 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. In addition to praising the work of the Newark and Baltimore offices, Vice President Gore commended Paige Gilbert, a lab manager for the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Commerce Department in Boulder, CO. She helped to simplify the procedures for recruiting bright students from the University of Colorado into government careers. By simply paying the university directly for the students' services, she eliminated a burdensome approval process. Reinvention efforts at the Commerce Department are part of a government wide effort to improve federal service. On September 11, President Clinton signed an Executive Order on Setting Customer Service Standards. It directs the federal government to provide the highest quality service possible to the American people -- service that matches or exceeds the best available in the private sector. The Executive Order on Customer Service Standards is a result 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 cost-savings reforms. About 80 percent of those recommendations already are being put in place across the federal government. ##