News Release

Media Contact: Andrew Kauders, (202) 720-4623
andrew.kauders@usda.gov
Contact: La Jaycee Brown, (202) 720-9741
ljbrown@rdmail.rural.usda.gov

USDA'S RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE RECEIVES HAMMER AWARD

BALTIMORE, August 19, 1999 -- A team of employees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) received a Hammer Award from Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. The award was presented to RUS Administrator Wally Beyer on behalf of the RUS team for its efforts to make government work better and cost less.

RUS received the award for its work to streamline agency procedures, reduce red tape and to target resources while continuing to improve the quality of life in rural America.

"Reinventing government is an ongoing process," Under Secretary for Rural Development Jill Long Thompson said. "For government to be effective, it must change to meet the needs of its citizens and the environment of the time in which it operates. This award represents the innovation of the RUS employees and their commitment to improving the quality of life in rural America."

The RUS actions include:

Targeting scarce federal grant funds to those areas of the nation that do not have basic utility infrastructure;

Developing flexible financing programs that have resulted in interest savings of $227 million for RUS borrowers;.

Reduced regulatory burdens by cutting more than 427 pages from the Federal Register;

Eliminating and simplifying RUS loan approval processes;

Automating loan processing functions that have reduced the time for advancing Federal Financing Bank guaranteed loan funds from two weeks to 24 hours;

Networking with federal, state, and local government agencies in an advocacy role for rural rate payers;

Promoting a paperless society that makes the federal government more responsive to its customers while decreasing the national paperwork burden; and

Streamlining the RUS organization by 23 percent.

"The true winners of this award are the families and communities of rural America," Long Thompson said. "This partnership of investment is reaping rewards to make our entire nation stronger."

Long Thompson said the resulting actions have made RUS a more focused, responsive agency, able to respond to new developments in a rapidly changing environment.

RUS provides infrastructure financing for electric, telecommunications, water and waste disposal projects in rural America. RUS manages a $42 billion loan portfolio including investments in approximately 7,000 small community and rural water and wastewater systems and 2,000 electric and telecommunications systems servicing some 84% of America's counties through a local/Federal partnership.

The Hammer Award is part of Vice President Gore's National Performance Review. The award is given to government employees who cut paperwork, reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve customer service.

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