Federal Grants-in-Aid Remarks Announcing Reform of the System.

In the midst of the bilateral negotiations with leaders from the Latin American countries, we are continuing our effort to make the Federal Government more effective and more open and more efficient and to remove a burden that has existed on business and labor, agriculture, State and local governments.

As a former State and local official, I am keenly aware that the way that Federal grants are handled is increasingly irrational and inefficient and, also, insensitive to local needs.

Today, I'm proud to be able to announce a concentrated attack on redtape and confusion in the Federal grant-in-aid system. My own Presidential Assistant, Jack Watson, is making this same announcement today at the National Governors Association meeting in Detroit.

Making government work better is not the most dramatic or exciting subject, but there are a few things that we can do during this administration to assure the American people that this important subject is being resolved as successfully as possible.

In the case of Federal grants, reform will save tax dollars and will also enable the Federal, State, and local governments to give taxpayers maximum value for each dollar that is spent.

We will concentrate first on five areas where experience has shown the most serious problems exist:

First, paperwork requirements for the grants themselves. When I was Governor of Georgia, we estimated that 30 percent of the personnel hours in the State Department of Education was spent just in preparing grant requests.

Second, the Federal Government's financial management practices. This can result in enormous savings to make sure that funds that go to local and State governments and to private contractors in pursuit of work that they do are only expended when the money is actually needed. And there are tremendous savings in the tens of millions of dollars available here.

Third, Federal audit procedures. These are important, because there is a general feeling, which I share, that quite often there is waste, avoidable cost overruns, and then when later investigations are precipitated because of doubts about the efficacy of these programs, the data are not available to prove or disprove charges of mismanagement or outright fraud.

Fourth, the drafting of the regulations. This is a constant problem of mine, trying to change the sometimes confusing and unnecessary verbosity and also complexity of regulations. So, simplicity of regulations and minimizing the number of regulations is a very important issue.

The last one is the various requirements in the area of civil rights, of citizens' participation in the governmental process, the protection of environmental quality, and other associated elements of any decision involving these kinds of practices.

Most of these changes are straightforward, commonsense changes, and they are long overdue. There will be a group here after I leave to answer specific questions, but I'd like to outline them as quickly as I can.

Standard application and reporting forms will be used instead of a great variety of individual forms now in use. This has been underway for the last 3 or 4 months.

A limit on the number of copies that the Federal Government asks State and local governments to file, not more than the original and two copies. Sometimes, in the past, literally dozens of copies have been required to be submitted.

A halt to the practice of asking for duplicate information on a grant renewal which has already been supplied as part of the original application. There's just no reason, annually, to repeat large collections of data that have already been submitted to the Federal Government and which have not been changed since the original application was made and approved.

And consolidation and simplification of reports to reduce the amount of paperwork by at least 7 million hours per year, which will be implemented by the end of this month. I know from personal experience, that Federal grant regulations are often written in obscure, almost impenetrable language. Many were developed without adequate consultation with the State and local governments or with the public.

We will act to see to it that future regulations do take into account the public's interest and convenience from the beginning of the grant request procedure.

I have also directed that old regulations now on the books be reexamined, abbreviated, and canceled when their time has been served. All the executive departments and agencies will review their most unpopular regulations, those which are causing the greatest public outcry. We've run surveys, along with committees in the Congress, to determine which ones cause the most problems for the American people. Most of these will be either reformed or abolished altogether.

Making government work better is a long, tedious, and unglamorous process, but it must be done. It's been neglected too long, and if we do nothing, the situation, of course, will continue to become worse.

My own election, to a great degree, was an expression of the public's frustration at how government does its business and of their desire to see changes for the better. The measures that I am announcing today represent a substantial step in that direction, and there will be more steps taken as the months go by by me, by the members of the Cabinet and other agency heads, working with local and State government, in particular, and with business and labor leaders, to minimize paperwork, to make government more comprehensible, and to make sure that the expenditure of Federal moneys are made in the most advantageous way to our people.

Thank you very much.