Obama says US needs a new government Obama says US needs a new government President Barack Obama’s request for authority to streamline U.S. executive agencies was greeted with skepticism from congressional Republicans while Democrats questioned elements of his reorganization plan.
The president said yesterday he wants to be able to undertake any consolidation that would save money and shrink government, subject to a “fast-track” vote of approval or disapproval by Congress in 90 days.
He said his first action would be replacing the Commerce Department with a yet unnamed agency that folds in the U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the Trade and Development Agency and the Small Business Administration.
“The government we have is not the government that we need,” Obama said yesterday at the White House. “Our economy has fundamentally changed — as has the world — but our government, our agencies, have not.”