The Speaker Speaks Out On Public Service

EXECUTIVE MEMO

The Speaker Speaks Out On Public Service

arlier this year, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., took time out from his busy schedule of speeches in Congress, press conferences and addresses at Republican fundraisers to do some... lecturing. He traveled up to Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in February to give an hour-long talk on government service to future public administrators.

Gingrich's lecture offered students a view of the federal bureaucracy quite different than that found in most public administration textbooks. "What's happened is we've built a system that pursues a perfection that it can't get, and then has to lie about what it is achieving," Gingrich told them. "Then it has to hire people to monitor what it is not doing right, and you end up with a mound of paperwork that doesn't deal with reality."

Not surprisingly, the leader of the Republican revolution thinks the way to improve the efficiency of the federal establishment is to devolve many of its functions to state and local governments, private companies and volunteer groups.

The Washington Post reported that students' reaction to the lecture was mixed. Some said Gingrich's speech gave them cause to be optimistic about future careers in public service; others said the speaker was simply out of touch. "The Speaker was convincing in his own universe but I'm not convinced he understands the lives of ordinary people," the Post quoted student Anita Visser as saying.

If Maxwell School students are any indication, the Speaker's plans to shrink the size of federal government are safe for now. Only about 18 percent of Maxwell graduates have taken jobs with the federal government in the last two years.