The Next Government: Hillary Clinton

Campaign Website
Government Management Proposals 1
Government Management Proposals 2

Speeches:

4/13/07: Outlining Government Reform Plan, Saint Anslem College

Candidate Proposal Analysis:

The Clinton campaign is promoting the following ten-point program of government reform:

• Banning Cabinet officials from lobbying a Hillary Clinton administration.

Fels Notes: This item refers to former cabinet officials who would be prohibited from lobbying the departments they once managed. Whether or not this applies only to cabinet officials of a potential Clinton administration or cabinet officials from prior administrations is ambiguous.

• Strengthening whistleblower protections.

Fels Notes: Whistleblower shield extended to all government employees. In recently decided Garcetti v. Ceballos, the Supreme Court ruled that employees of the state do not have first amendment protections when the subject matter relates to government business. The House has passed the Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007, which would check the Court’s ruling by granting this right to public employees, but the bill has yet to come to a vote in the Senate.

• Creating a public service academy.

Fels Notes: A “West Point for Public Service,” the institution would grant matriculants a free education in exchange for a five-year commitment to public service:

From Take Back America Conference 6/20/07: “When I'm president, the entrance to the White House will no longer be a revolving door for the well connected, but a door of opportunity for the well qualified. We're going to enlist young people once again serving their government. I have proposed a public service academy, just like our military academy. Let's start sending young people to school to serve America in another way!”

• Ending abuse of no-bid government contracts and posting all contracts online.

Fels Notes: Would restore competitive bidding to all government contracts except in cases of national emergency.

• Cutting 500,000 government contractors.

Fels Notes: Campaign claims this can be done by executive order. The 500,000 figure is over ten years.

• Restoring the Office of Technology Assessment.

Fels Notes: The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) existed from 1972-1995 and served to assist the Congress in drafting legislation that took into consideration the technological and scientific understanding of the era. Its primary function was to produce reports on topics germane to pending or proposed legislation.

• Publishing budgets for every government agency.

Fels Notes: Budgets, along with their justification documents, would be available online within 48 hours of being presented to Congress.

• Implementing “Results America” Initiative to track government effectiveness.

Fels Notes: Results America is described on the campaign website as an effort to “modern[ize] data collection” so as to give Americans real-time information about issues as local as traffic patterns and air quality. Would also seek new ways to digitize information collection such as wireless sensor networks.

From an april, 2007, interview with The Associated Press: "We have to bring the government into the 21st century…We expect to be able to go to an ATM machine, stick a card in and get money, but we can't figure out how to get medical records from the Department of Defense over to the VA (Veterans Affairs). It makes no sense."

• Tracking and eliminating corporate welfare.

Fels Notes: Includes the creation of a Corporate Subsidy Information Service (CSIS) to “evaluate the effectiveness” of these subsidies in stimulating economic growth. Aside from the creation of this new bureaucracy, not much else at this point involves a management-related reform.

• Expanding voting access and safeguarding voting machines.

Fels Notes: The website notes Clinton’s sponsorship of the Count Every Vote Act in 2005 which mandated a paper trail for all voting machines and included additional spending to train poll workers.