David Thomas: “Mr. President I remind my colleagues that the amendment this body just agreed to contains word for word the amendment of…”

“Mr. President I remind my colleagues that the amendment this body just agreed to contains word for word the amendment of the Senator from Maryland. However, it goes on to explain that as we go through the 76 process; it is not the quotas that matter. That is what gives some guidance to management. What you have to do is study the issue and make sure that is the appropriate place. It seems to me we ought to be looking a little bit ahead instead of being defensive about big Government and everyone working in the big Government. We all like Government. We like the employees. They do a good job. The point is, do you want an efficient Government or one that continues to grow and pays no attention to efficiency and has no competition? What we are talking about is a bill that was passed in 1998 which said we are going to list those functions within the Federal Government that are not specifically governmental, that could be done outside the Government, and compete. I cannot imagine what is wrong with the idea of having competition, what is wrong with the idea of being more efficient. They are still jobs. We are not taking away jobs. They may be moving to the private sector where they can compete and do that particular function of Government more efficiently. The idea that we just sit here and defend civil service because they are working--it disturbs me when we talk about secretaries. This does not have anything to do with secretaries.”