Bob Kerrey: “So that the public can put this into perspective, there are 1.971 million Federal employees. Right now, there is an…”

“So that the public can put this into perspective, there are 1.971 million Federal employees. Right now, there is an allowance for 3,400. I think we are at 2,800 now. This would take us down to 2,300. My concern with the Senator's amendment is based upon having been elected for 4 years as Governor, where I came into office with very little opportunity for appointments below the top slot. It made it difficult, therefore, to come in, having promised to do something, for example, with agriculture, with taxes, or with some other area of government, and carry that out. The public expected me to be able to do it. But, in fact, I would come in with very little real power, because there was little opportunity to bring people in who agreed with the positions that I had taken during the campaign itself. That is why I was concerned when I heard that. It runs against my own common experience, my own personal experience. It does not seem to me that running at the current level of 2,800, with 3,400 being the cap, that does not seem, on the surface, to be like a thickening of the Government. It is less than half of 1 percent--current political appointees. I know the administration raised concerns, not just for themselves but for whoever might follow, that this could impede their ability to carry out whatever he or she campaigned upon. It seems to me the people expect him to be able to come in and run the bureaucracies with the people that have similar views to theirs.”