GovernmentExecutive.com

In separate appearances Tuesday, John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic contenders for president and vice president, unveiled a series of proposals to overhaul the federal bureaucracy, including a pledge to slash the ranks of managers and supervisors at agencies.

In a campaign swing through southern Wisconsin, Kerry spoke about proposals to keep federal spending in check, pledging to cut the budget deficit in half in four years, convince Congress to enact a constitutionally valid form of the line-item veto, cut agencies' budgets across the board if federal spending grows faster than the rate of inflation, and appoint a new "Corporate Welfare Commission" to eliminate unnecessary spending.

In a series of speeches in Louisiana, Edwards focused on government reform initiatives. At an appearance in Alexandria, La., Edwards unveiled a new Kerry proposal to reduce the federal managerial ranks. Referring to a recent study by New York University's Paul Light for the Brookings Institution, Edwards said the Bush administration had "layered on a whole crowd of supervisory people in government," according to a report in The Washington Post.

"We don't need any more supervisors...We got to get rid of these people," said Edwards.

In a plan released on Kerry's Web site, the Democratic nominee pledged to "thin out the top ranks of government by restoring the governmentwide target of no more than one supervisor per 15 subordinates." That target was set under the Clinton administration's "reinventing government" initiative.

Light's study revealed that as of this year, there are 64 different executive support titles in use at agencies. Six years ago, there were 51; in 1992, there were 33. A survey completed in 1960 found just 17.

In his government reform plan, Kerry also pledged to:

• Reduce the number of contract workers employed at agencies by 100,000. Kerry unveiled the contractor cut proposal in a speech at Georgetown University earlier this year.
• Freeze the federal travel budget - also a proposal introduced at the Georgetown speech. Kerry's plan notes that federal travel expenses "continue to grow more quickly than inflation."
• Implement Government Accountability Office recommendations to reduce the government's fleet of 387,000 vehicles, and improve management of the fleet.
• Eliminate the Office of Thrift Supervision, which was created in the late 1980s to deal with the savings and loan crisis.
• Consolidate many of the 70 different federal statistical agencies into one new entity called Statistics USA.
• Merge the Commerce Department's Telecommunications Administration and National Telecommunications and Information Administration into a single agency.

Many of Kerry and Edwards' proposals originate in a February paper by Paul Weinstein Jr., a senior fellow with the Progressive Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington think tank. Weinstein has been involved in efforts to set up a group of Kerry advisers on government reform initiatives.

VIEW ALL 14 COMMENTS POST COMMENT

COMMENTS

• I have worked in the Gov't long enough to know that trimming bureaucracy is nothing more than reducing field staff while increasing political appointees that have NO earthly idea what is truly going on and increasing workload. Want to know how to trim some of the fat off the hog? Get rid of the dead weight. Gov't does a good job at promoting the worthless. Some supervisors out there just plain suck. They have no skills to motivate or even lead, but yet they are in charge. Also they are the ones actually on travel the most. My supervisor got to go to Australia just because one of her employees was presenting a paper. Then comes back and rubs it in all our faces. Yet another example. I recently traveled for a training meeting and was told not to even try and save the gov't money. It was going to cost around $800 to fly to my meeting, but if I drove it would be less than $150 round trip. I ended driving AND getting in trouble for not requesting to drive. I was told after the fact not to try and save money. I guess that since I am a Gov't employee and not a taxpaying citizen that I should not be appalled at their comment. One last example is that I work in DC and I have noticed that even though I have a two secretaries that are supposed to be my administrative support, I find that I am spending time ordering supplies, making sure copying is done, filing and mail room. I believe that this issue is more along the line of work ethic and nepotism, which by the way that is another big issue as well. Most Gov't employees love their job and do it because we believe that what we do really help people. I did not join the Gov't to be a millionaire. GovExec.com reader Posted August 16, 2004 2:11 PM
• Too many supervisors? How can that be, my new supervisor sat around for three years supervising no one. Now she has two people to micromanage and she is elated. Get rid of them before you get one of them. During Clinton we talked about 15 to one and of course we did nothing to make it happen, just talk. Talk is all this is folks, we work for the government and they do not change their mindset they adjust to the new boss. Very simple in my book, I have been watching it for 27 years and it doesn't change. By the way, Edwards was not a governor he is a Senator. GovExec.com reader Posted August 11, 2004 8:14 AM
• If Kerry does win the presidency, a major step towards government savings and cutting management positions would be to get rid of the Defense Security Service or at least privatize it. Getting rid of DSS would set a great example to other agencies who espouse the philosophy of "the more managers the better". Dafne Ecklundsway Posted August 10, 2004 6:11 PM

VIEW ALL 14 COMMENTS