Davis seeks to put reorganization on fast track

President Bush needs the flexibility to reorganize federal agencies as the nation faces the prospect of war and security threats loom, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said Monday.

Davis told a group of government and industry officials that the Bush administration should be empowered to swiftly restructure government agencies without congressional interference bogging it down.

"You not only have a fight between management and unions... but you also have turf fights" in Congress over federal reorganization, said Davis, a Republican. To remedy that issue, Davis wants to "fast-track" government reorganization authority, which would give President Bush the power to propose major organizational changes to federal agencies but allow Congress only to disapprove or approve the action without lengthy deliberation.

"Reorganization authority makes a lot of sense if you really want to bring reorganization to the government," he said at a luncheon sponsored by the IBM Endowment for the Business of Government. Avoiding some of those congressional turf battles "will make it easier to revamp government ... and move it into the information age."

The move fits with Davis' broader vision to boost government efficiency through new management processes. The government is facing a shortage of skilled information technology workers and thousands more will be eligible for retirement over the next few years. Changing the way agencies manage and promote workers will be key to stemming the labor crisis, he said.

"Civil service today is more of a seniority system than a merit-based system and that discourages a lot of people from staying ....We need to take to a looking a revamping that standard," he added.

He plans to address issues of compensation for federal employees and suggested one way to help reward workers at the highest levels is by de-linking salary increases for federal executives from congressional pay raises.

And while Davis praised efforts by Bush officials to instill new management practices into agencies and seize the benefits of technology to reduce government waste, he noted that some aspects of the administration's agenda "lacked details."

Many of the information technology projects spearheaded by the Office of Management and Budget are part of the President's Management Agenda, which outlines goals in five areas for making federal agencies more efficient and accountable. Right now, there are not many specifics in the plan, Davis said. It is easy to talk about initiatives like a merit-based pay system, "but the devil's always in the details," he said.