May 23, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H 5461

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. KAPTUR] is recognized for 5 minutes.

[Ms. KAPTUR addressed the House.

Her remarks will appear hereafter in

the Extensions of Remarks.]

previous order of the House, the genThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

ftleman from Florida [Mr. GOSS] is recognized for 5 minutes.

[Mr. GOSS addressed the House. His

remarks will appear hereafter in the

previous order of the House, the genExtensions of Remarks.]

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

ftleman from New York [Mr. OWENS] is

recognized for 5 minutes.

[Mr. OWENS addressed the House.

His remarks will appear hereafter in

the Extensions of Remarks.]

previous order of the House, the genThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

ftleman from Colorado [Mr. MCINNIS] is

recognized for 5 minutes.

[Mr. MCINNIS addressed the House.

His remarks will appear hereafter in

the Extensions of Remarks.]

previous order of the House, the genThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

ftleman from Guam [Mr. UNDERWOOD] is

recognized for 5 minutes.

[Mr. UNDERWOOD addressed the

House. His remarks will appear hereafter in the Extensions of Remarks.]

STREAMLINING THE FEDERAL

GOVERNMENT

fThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

the Speaker’s announced policy of May

12, 1995, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. FOX] is recognized for 60

minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak today about a very

momentous occasion.

The freshman class of the Republican

Conference along with representatives

of the Senate and the House leadership

that were involved in an overview and

a study of the Federal agencies of the

United States have come out with their

results under the leadership of the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. BROWNBACK]

and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr.

CHRYSLER] in evaluating for the first

time just what the costs are of our

Federal bureaucracies and how we can

reduce those costs.

In a detailed summary today by the

gentleman from Michigan [Mr. CHRYSLER], we learned just how effective it

can be to privatize, consolidate, and

eliminate key functions that the Commerce Department has been undertaking up to this point; that a great deal

of savings, $7 billion, in fact, over the

next few years could be made by

privatizing many of the functions, consolidating others and eliminating others that actually duplicate what other

Federal agencies are doing.

Mr. Speaker, this is part of an overall

review by Members of this House concerned with the fiscal responsibility

that we have to make sure that we

hold the line on costs. Before us today

and in the coming weeks and months,

we will be looking not only at the Commerce Department but the functions of

the Department of Housing and Urban

Development, the Energy Department

as well as the Education Department.

We can no longer be spending funds

as if it is someone else’s money. It is

our constituents’ money. They must

get their money’s worth.

The question we are asking for every

Federal agency, for every department,

for every bureau: Is this function best

accomplished by the Government, or is

it best accomplished by the private

sector? If it is best accomplished by the

private sector, it is our job, whether it

be in the House or the Senate or the

executive branch, the President, to in

fact make sure that the private sector

is where the function will rest. While

the question remains, if it is going to

be a governmental function, is it best

handled by the Federal Government or

the State government, county government, or local government?

We should not be duplicating services

and programs best administered by

governments closest to the people. We

have seen this time and time again

that the governments closest to the

people oftentimes can get the efficiencies and the personal contact that

the Federal agencies have not been

able to effectuate on behalf of the people.

In addition to the gentleman from

Kansas [Mr. BROWNBACK] and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. CHRYSLER]

discussing the future of the Commerce

Department today, we had former Secretary Mosbacher who himself was Secretary of the Department of Commerce

who in very strong terms has recommended that in fact the department

which has grown, from his point of

view the department be privatized, be

consolidated and certain functions be

eliminated.

Secretary Mosbacher was someone

who was well-respected as a secretary

and who has been a leader in the public

and private sector.

He was joined there today in our conference by none other than Senator

BOB DOLE, Senator FAIRCLOTH, and

Senator ABRAHAM. Senators ABRAHAM

and FAIRCLOTH are part of the Senate

committee which has been reviewing

the Commerce Department and how it

can be downsized and, for that matter,

privatized and certain functions eliminated. We believe that this is a

thoughtful and very contemplative report that has been issued.

If members of the public are interested in getting copies, if they would

just contact Mr. CHRYSLER’s office at

the U.S. House of Representatives here

in Washington, DC. His report has been

exhaustive, it is over 3 months, it is

part of the freshmen class and Republican leadership effort to in fact reexamine government to find out where

we can make the savings, where we can

take lessons from the private sector to

in fact make sure that the services we

are delivering are the ones the people

want, that do not duplicate what State

governments do but in fact provide the

kinds of services that make a difference in people’s lives.

We will be hearing forthcoming in

the next few weeks the surveys and the

reports and the analysis by those who

have been involved with the other

three departments I spoke of, HUD and

its services, as well the Energy Department, and, in fact, the Education Department.

We heard today in the subcommittee

headed by the gentleman from California [Mr. HORN] about how the Energy

Department can be downsized as well.

Many of the reasons for the creation of

the Energy Department surrounded the

shortage of energy two decades ago. We

now have a better opportunity to provide the fuels we need, we can downsize

according to two former secretaries of

the Department of Energy who testified before our Committee on Government Reform and Oversight headed by

the gentleman from California [Mr.

HORN] today. The testimony was quite

poignant about the savings that can be

realized, about again the privatization

that the Federal Government can have

with the functions now being undertaken by the Department of Energy,

and while there are many good public

relations aspects of the Department of

Energy, many of the functions have already been assumed by other agencies

and in some ways duplicate some functions that the Department of Defense

is now conducting.

We hope that these surveys on Energy, Education, HUD, and Commerce

will give many of our citizens and

hopefully many of our executives that

work within the Federal agencies the

enthusiasm to join us in this revolution to make our Federal agencies be

more responsive, to reduce the waste,

the abuse and the fraud that can exist

in government, but to provide the

funds for the services we really need.

That way we will make the Government more responsive.

I know that the House, the Senate,

and in fact the President for that matter will be very pleased to hear from

constituents about services that the

Federal Government is now trying to

perform which may in fact duplicate

services that are being performed by

your State, your county, or local governments. It is not our intention to in

fact duplicate those services but to

make them outstanding.

At this time I would like to call on

the gentleman from Kansas [Mr.

TIAHRT] who is heading up the Energy

Department task force. It has been his

mission along with other Congressmen

who whom he is working to analyze the