1997: Timeline of Events

1997: Timeline of Events

JANUARY

Jan. 3: A federal executive association accuses a union of launching an SES witch hunt.
Jan. 9: IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson steps down.
Jan. 22: Madeleine Albright is confirmed as first female Secretary of State.
Jan. 27: Labor Secretary-designate Alexis Herman's confirmation runs into trouble.
Jan. 30: Andrew Cuomo is confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Jan. 30: Senate confirms William Daley as Commerce Secretary.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 3: Clinton and Gore issue 15 rules to Cabinet members for reinventing their departments.
Feb. 4: A congressional panel proposes an independent control board to improve operations at the IRS.
Feb. 6: President Clinton releases a $1.7 trillion spending plan for fiscal 1998.
Feb. 7: Senate Finance Chairman William Roth, R-Del., announces plans to review IRS intrusions into taxpayers' privacy.
Feb. 11: Al Gore tells agencies to go digital.
Feb. 14: GAO adds five agencies to its high risk list.
Feb. 25: GAO says Year 2000 computer failure is likely.

MARCH

March 4: A study finds that the FAA mismanages money.
March 11: IRS officials estimate number of workers to lay off.
Agency consultations with Congress on the Government Performance and Results Act are off to a slow start.
March 13: Federal employees who are laid off are given the right to apply unused leave toward reaching retirement eligibility.
March 21: The Clinton administration hires an outside consultant to conduct a multimillion-dollar review of the naturalization process.
Coalition calls for hiring more hispanics to executive positions.
March 26: CIA announces it will cut middle level managers so the agency can give pay raises to its analysts.

APRIL

April 4: President Clinton pays tribute to former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other department officials who were killed a year ago in a plane crash.
April 8: The Social Security Administration suspends its on-line financial records access service after much criticism.
April 9: The GAO reports that the IRS is having serious computer security problems.
April 11: President Clinton announces that federal agencies will hire at least 10,000 people off the welfare rolls over the next four years.
Republican leaders move to pass legislation guaranteeing there will be no government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year.
April 16: Both houses of Congress pass measures making it a crime for IRS workers to snoop through returns.
April 25: The House passes a bill that would make the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) a government corporation.

MAY

May 1: The Senate confirms Alexis Herman as Labor Secretary.
May 7: Defense Secretary William Cohen says he will seek two additional rounds of base closings in the next four years.
May 14: A survey of federal managers and executives finds morale in federal agencies continues to fall.
May 27: FCC Chairman Reed Hundt announces retirement.
May 28: The Supreme Court upholds a ruling that the U.S. Information Agency had discriminated against women.
May 29: James Earl Jones honors a group of feds for redesigning the phone book blue pages.

JUNE

June 3: Timothy McVeigh is found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy and murder for the Oklahoma City bombing.
June 6: A congressional commission recommends that a seven-member panel replace the Treasury Department as the governing body of the IRS.
June 14: President Clinton announces a race initiative called "One America."
June 19: John Koskinen, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, announces plans to leave government.
June 27: HUD announces a management reform plan that would eliminate 3,000 jobs.
June 30: Commerce Department cuts 40 political appointees.

JULY

July 1: The Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp.
July 7: The U.S. Army Infantry School and Center at Fort Benning, Ga., wins the 1997 Presidential Award for Quality.
July 14: The 10th annual National Conference on Federal Quality concludes.
July 17: John Hamre is named Deputy Secretary of the Defense Department.
July 21: The Senate approves a measure requiring all games to be removed off government computers.
July 29: Almost 40 percent of women and nearly 20 percent of men at the Department of Veterans Affairs say they have received unwanted sexual attention during the past year.

AUGUST

August 5: President Clinton releases an executive order banning smoking in and around all federal buildings.
August 6: President Clinton signs the budget deal.
August 7: A bipartisan commission recommends that Congress abolish the 156-year-old Immigration and Naturalization Service.
August 13: Office of Personnel Management Director Jim King steps down.
August 14: Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to the death penalty.
August 15: President Clinton issues guidelines to clarify federal workers' right to express religious views at work.
August 29: President Clinton authorizes a 2.8 percent average pay increase for federal workers.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 4: The Defense Department says it is exploring ways to place civilian employees into a new personnel organization outside the standard civil service system.
Sept. 5: The Social Security Administration announces that it will launch a modified version of its retirement benefits on-line service.
Sept. 12: Army finds that lack of leadership contributes to sexual harassment.
Sept. 16: Steven Kelman, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, steps down.
Sept. 17: OPM releases new senior executive qualifications.
Sept. 19: Federal Telecommunications Service Commissioner Robert Woods retires.
Sept. 24: IRS abuse and mismanagement hearings begin.

OCTOBER

Oct. 2: Congress sends the President a spending bill that would raise the cap on senior executive pay for the first time in four years.
Oct. 3: Janice Lachance is named Office of Personnel Management Director.
Oct. 8: Theresa Squillacote, a former attorney in the Pentagon's acquisition reform office, is charged with spying for East Germany.
Oct. 9: The IRS and the Food and Drug Administration are the only federal winners of this year's prestigious Innovations in American Government Awards.
The federal government announces it has hired nearly 2,000 welfare recipients in six months.
Oct. 16: President Clinton uses his line-item veto power to cancel a provision that would have allowed federal employees to switch retirement plans.
Oct. 29: John Sturdivant, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, dies.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 4: The Senate confirms Charles Rossotti as IRS commissioner.
Nov. 6: Vice President Gore releases the annual report of the National Performance Review.
Nov. 7: Army Secretary Togo West is picked to head the Veteran's Administration.
Nov. 11: Congressional Republicans give most agencies failing grades on their Government Performance and Results Act strategic plans.
The Defense Department announces a "revolution in business affairs."
Nov. 14: Federal agencies are failing to collect $50 billion in debts.
Nov. 20: Twenty-two corporations, trade associations and non-profit organizations launch a partnership to restore trust in government.
Nov. 25: OPM announces that Dec. 26 is a holiday for federal employees.

DECEMBER

Dec. 2: A panel of retired generals and business executives recommend far-reaching reforms at the Defense Department.
Dec. 4: HUD's inspector general questions the feasibility of the agency's management reform plan.
Dec. 9: OPM announces that members of the Senior Executive Service will get locality pay raises.
Dec. 10: The Interior Department unveils a plan to increase agency diversity.
Dec. 17: A panel established by the Defense Department recommends that male and female recruits should be segregated during most of basic training and live in separate barracks.
The Office of Management and Budget pushes up the Y2K deadline.