Political Quotes

“My response is, simply, do not beat that dog. Because what we are doing here is beating up on agencies which serve the people of this country, and when we ask them to do their plans all over again, we are wasting taxpayers' money. This amendment, Madam Chairman, is simple and straightforward. It eliminates the bill's requirement that all Federal agencies' strategic plans should be resubmitted on September 30, 1998. The annual performance plans required by GPRA have only just begun arriving in Congress. Some will make changes to agencies' strategic plans. It would be much better to absorb these annual plans fully before requiring the rewrite of all the strategic plans by this September. As a purely practical matter, it is now mid March. The best we can possibly expect from the Senate would be action toward the end of April. That would leave the agencies about 5 months to draft new plans, consult with Congress, and submit final strategic plans. That is simply not long enough. Also, the submission of these plans this October, less than 6 weeks from election day, opens the door to a politicization of GPRA, which we have tried to avoid.”