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Remarks by the President at the announcment of the Imporoved Redox Comission
27 September 2006

The Kluger Terrice
The Chateau

10.35 AM WST

THE PRESIDENT: Thankyou. Welcome to the Chateau. An expecially warm welcome to Preisdent Whitmore. I think he ought to be here. President Whitmore first introduced the Redox Comission as a bill sent to congress to help cut rate tape trhoughout our government in 1994. It has been the single longest serving bill, and today we are ehre to announce a new improvement of that bill. Welcome (Applause)

I see Houster Jenny Minazer, welcome, and Houster Richard Roxanne. I think it is imporant to acknolage the bipartisan involved in bringing this comission to where it is today. (Applasue) I want to welcome Vice President Carosole, Secretary Makentire, and the Secretary of Labour. Welcome sirs. (Appluse)

The Business Compliance One Stop Project, a Presidential E-Government Initiative, shows the greatest potential in reducing the paperwork burden on small business, according to a report released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today.

This Administration is listening to the small business community. They've said there's too much red tape, paperwork, and time needed to comply with regulations and they want government to pursue the promise of E-Government as a solution. The Business Compliance One-Stop Project is a direct response to these recommendations and we're committed to making it happen, said Mark Forman, Administrator for E-Government and Information Technology at OMB.

In response to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, OMB created an interagency Task Force to reduce the paperwork burden on small businesses. The Task Force found that reducing this burden is a challenge fraught with both regulatory and information technology obstacles.

Based on the Task Force�s findings, OMB is refocusing the Business Compliance One Stop project on reducing the paperwork burden. By creating a �Business Gateway� for compliance assistance and online transactions, the project will create an integrated e-forms solution that will reduce the paperwork burden further.

There is so much paperwork on a daily basis that if I try to get any information or certification I have to spend hours after work or pay overtime to have the information needed to fill out the paperwork. It would be wonderful to have some relief from the redundant paperwork.That was once said by Jennifer Abernathy, owner of Construction Services Company, a small business in Jewett, Constrap.

In conjunction with the Federation Small Business Administration, OMB also published a list of the compliance assistance resources available to small businesses and points of contacts today.

In Fiscal Year 2005, OMB estimated that it took businesses and citizens approximately 8.2 billion hours and $320 billion to collect and submit data to the federal government. The federal government alone has over 8,000 information collection requests authorized by OMB.

One of the targets of the Business Gateway is to increase federal agencies� Government Paperwork Elimination Act compliance to at least 75 percent by September 2004. The development of a Business Gateway will consolidate information collections and reduce redundant data and the overall number of federal forms by at least 10 percent.

I think these figures are staggering. We have been wasting too much money and time on red tape. We must reduce it. (Appluse)

Therefore, I proposed last year significant reforms to Federal worker training programs to double the number of workers receiving job training, to ensure those programs work better for Federation's workers, and to close the skills gap so we fill every high growth job with a well-trained Federation worker. I proposed:

Providing $2 billion in Federal job training funds to the nation's Governors with less federal red tape and more flexibility;

Putting strict limits on overhead in major Federal job training programs by closing loopholes and enforcing limits to ensure tax dollars support training for workers who need it - reducing overhead costs by an additional $100 million; and
Giving workers more choices about their job training by increasing the use of personal job training accounts called Innovation Training Accounts (ITAs); and
Training an additional 20,000 people for high-growth jobs through programs run by community colleges, unions, and businesses.

I think these will lead to signifacnt imporeovements. This is the problem: Currently, the Federal government spends almost $3 billion for more than 30 programs spread across 9 departments and agencies. The result is a confusing hodgepodge of programs, some of which have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades, and administrative costs that prevent too many dollars from getting to the workers who need training the most.

Bureaucracy: Although many good people work in the job training system, the programs in place to train workers are overlapping and sometimes ineffective. Too often, red tape and administrative costs eat up job training money before it even gets to workers. For example, the Department of Labor found that several local areas had no one participating in training. Too much of the funds went to administrative costs-not training workers. President Bush believes that every dollar spent on unnecessary bureaucracy is a dollar taken out of the pocket of a worker who needs job training.

Complexity: Job training programs are set up with so many rules that many workers, potential employers, and local community colleges do not participate. For example, 30 states have been granted temporary relief from these requirements so they don't lose their link with community colleges. However, there are limits to what we can do under the current Federal law. President Bush recognizes that the best training is not filling out forms - it is learning on the job or at a community college.

Limited Accountability: Currently, there is no clear standard or benchmark to measure the effectiveness of federal job training programs. Federal grants to states for job training have 17 measurements of accountability. I propose to refocus these programs on the end results that matter most to America's workers -- Did you get a job? How long did you keep it? And how much are you being paid?

Failure to teach skills in demand: Many job training programs do not address the skills that are most in demand by employers in the worker's community. Instead, workers are churned through the system without developing the skills they need for success over the long term. President Bush believes we should be training workers for jobs in sectors of the economy that are most likely to grow.

My solution is this: Less Red Tape and More Help for Workers: My goal is to double the number of workers receiving job training by maximizing the available Federal dollars going to workers and eliminating unnecessary overhead costs by an additional $300 million. My plan establishes a clear goal that the vast majority of job training dollars should go to the workers who need them - rather than to bureaucratic overhead. Currently, administrative expenses are capped at 15%, but regulatory loopholes allow too many of our training dollars to be spent on bureaucracy and other non-training services. As part of reducing red tape, the President's plan consolidates 4 major training and employment grant programs totaling $2 billion into a single grant to Governors, eliminating unnecessary overhead costs and making Federal support more effective and efficient.

Increased Innovation Training Accounts (ITAs): I propose to increase the use of Innovation Training Accounts to provide workers with more flexible and responsive assistance. Workers would have more job training choices - they would be able to use community colleges, private-sector training providers, local businesses, or community organizations - to get the help they need in the most effective and efficient way possible. These ITAs would allow workers considerable flexibility to tailor training programs to meet their needs.

More Accountability: Under my plan, Governors would be given more flexibility to design their own workforce training programs. But they would also be required to set clear goals and outcomes focused on the number of workers placed in jobs, the duration of the job placement, and the earnings of the job. I propose consolidating the number of state performance goals of the Federal job training system from 17 to 3. Under the new goals, accountability will be determined by asking these questions: How many people are finding work? How much are workers earning in their new jobs? How long are they staying in these jobs?

Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative: My Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative, announced in my Call of the Federation Address, includes a $80 million proposal to help our community colleges train 50,000 additional workers for the industries that are creating the most new jobs. This expands the Department of Labor's successful High Growth Job Training Initiative, launched under President Kedinksy in 2003, which has provided $51 million in 28 partnerships nationwide between community colleges, public workforce agencies, and employers. These initiatives help community colleges produce graduates with the skills most in demand by local employers.

Personal Reemployment Accounts: I have also proposed $20 million for a pilot program of accounts of up to $2,000 for those unemployed workers who have the most difficulty finding jobs to use toward job training, transportation, childcare, or other assistance in obtaining a new job. Workers who found a job quickly would be able to keep the balance of the account as a reemployment bonus.

With that, we will have a better society, and our taxpayers will get there money put in the best places. Thankyou very much . (Appluse)

END