Crs Report for Congress: Executive Branch Reorganization and Management Initiatives: October 16, 2002 - Ib93026

When President George W. Bush came into office in January 2001, he arrived from a campaign in which he had emphasized efficiency in government, particularly through the use of information technology, but had not revealed any plans for reorganizing the executive branch. The departing Clinton Administration had conducted, during most of its eight-year tenure, an active effort at "reinventing government," spearheaded by a National Performance Review (NPR). Announced shortly after the 1993 inauguration, the NPR sought to find ways to make the federal government more efficient, economical, and effective. The result was a series of reports proposing various organizational and operational reforms. Several major NPR recommendations were awaiting implementation when the November 1994 congressional elections resulted in Republican majority party control of both houses of the 104th Congress. Republican congressional leaders had unveiled a Contract With America reform plan in late September 1994. Its core principles regarded the federal government as being too big, spending too much, being unresponsive to the citizenry, and p e r p e t r a t i n g burdensome regulations. Consequently, at least two distinct agendas for reforming and restructuring the federal government were before the 104th Congress. At its conclusion, both the ...