FED. ACERS: please pass this on to the management in your organization.
This reinvention is really making sense.  POCS-plain ole' common sense and
you are part of it.  gl
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The Waiver Clearinghouse can be found http://www.npr.gov  and
click on Reinvention Labs and Waiver Clearinghouse.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Immediate Release
April 21, 1998



MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

Subject: Streamlining the Granting of Waivers

Five years ago, the Vice President asked you to create reinvention
laboratories in your departments and agencies and to streamline the
granting of waivers of internal agency rules within them so the
laboratories could more effectively promote innovation. These waivers --
delegations of authority to deviate from existing internal agency
policies and procedures -- are often sought by front-line employees who
are trying to make their operations work better, cost less, and get
results that Americans care about. The Vice President and I emphasized
such measures in the Blair House Papers last year, when we encouraged
you to delegate more power to front-line employees to unlock the
enormous potential of the Federal workforce.

Your departments and agencies have responded, and Federal employees have
used waivers to facilitate innovation and provide excellent customer
service. For example, the Coast Guard marine safety programs have
increased managerial flexibility for field commanders to waive
unnecessary requirements that had previously accounted for over one-half
million work hours annually. The Department of Agriculture's Animal
Plant Health Inspection Service's Tort Claims Adjudication Team used a
waiver to reduce the processing time for tort claims of less than $2,500
from 51 days to 8.

Based on these experiences, I am directing you, where you determine that
it is appropriate, to adopt some of the best practices developed by
agencies. These best practices include the following characteristics:

1.Waiver requests are acted upon within 30 days or less. After 30 days,
the originating entity within the agency can assume approval and
implement the requested waiver.

2.Those officials having authority to grant or change internal agency
rules can approve waiver requests, but only the head of an agency can
deny a waiver request.

3.Officials who have the authority to grant waivers are encouraged to
identify potential waiver opportunities and extend waivers to their own
agencies.

The Vice President's team at the National Partnership for Reinventing
Government (NPR) is ready to assist you in developing a waiver process
based upon lessons learned and best practices from agencies that have
experience with waivers. Some of you already have this type of waiver
process in place for reinvention laboratories. I direct you to take
every opportunity to extend this process throughout your agency.

You should report to the Vice President on actions taken to implement
this memorandum by July 1, 1998.

This memorandum does not apply to waiver requests by grant program
recipients nor does it apply to the granting of waivers to statutory
requirements or practices required by law. It applies to those internal
agency rules not codified in the Code of Federal Regulations.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON



Welcome to Our Clearinghouse!!
...navigate the Reinvention Lab Database and Waiver Clearinghouse and
discover a few of the ways that federal employees and their partners are
 creating a government that "works better, costs less, and gets results
Americans care about." We will continue to expand and update this
clearinghouse so return often! Please send updates to the database to
Mildred Owens, email [log in to unmask], fax: (202) 347-3252 or phone:
(202) 347-3190.