So, you’ve got an idea that you’re sure will help provide better service to your USDA customers. But there’s this in-house rule that’s keeping you from putting your idea into practice.

Well, you can grouse about that obstacle to your office colleagues. Or you can request a waiver of that in-house rule. And, these days, now you’ve got the clout of a Secretary’s Memorandum to aid you in your request to get that in-house rule waived--and get your new idea up and running.

This new flexibility is courtesy of Secretary’s Memorandum 2570- 1, titled “Waivers of Internal Department of Agriculture Rules,” which Secretary Dan Glickman signed on February 18, 2000.

In his Secretary’s Memorandum Glickman noted that this new approach is in response to a written request by President Bill Clinton in April 1998 that federal departments expand their use of waivers of internal rules in order to facilitate governmental 'reinvention efforts’ that are designed to further the efficient and effective delivery of governmental services to the public.

“I am committed to ensuring this ongoing effort reaches its full potential within the Department of Agriculture,” Glickman affirmed in the memo, “through the establishment of a Department-wide standard waiver process that encourages innovation, is 'user-friendly,’ and provides a quick route to cutting red tape and ensuring better, faster service to the public.”

The five-page Secretary’s Memorandum outlined a procedure to accomplish this goal. The procedure included designating a USDA Waiver Coordinator, as well as a waiver point of contact within each USDA program agency and staff office.

Office of Human Resources Management Deputy Director Bob Whiting is serving as the Departmentwide Waiver Coordinator. He noted the parameters under which Secretary’s Memorandum 2570-1 is designed to operate.

“'Internal rules’ apply to internal Department regulations, processes, policies, and procedures that relate to providing our USDA programs and services to the public,” he explained. “But this new waiver request process does not apply to laws, treaties, Executive Orders, negotiated labor agreements, civil rights protections, governmentwide regulations, or any other requirements and practices required by law.”

“This waiver request process,” he pointed out, “applies only to internal USDA rules not codified in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.”

“And waiver requests that would have a detrimental effect on USDA’s mission or its customers will be routinely disapproved.”

He added that Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger is the USDA official with the ultimate decision-making authority to waive internal rules for the Department.

Whiting explained that USDA’s waiver request process is set up so that it takes no more than 30 days from the time an employee initiates a waiver request to the time a decision on that request is made. “This streamlined process is in keeping with the whole idea of reinventing government,” he observed.

In fact, this initiative is one of many that the Department has developed as part of the governmentwide effort called “National Partnership for Reinventing Government,” formerly called “National Performance Review.” Gypsy Banks, USDA’s Hammer Award coordinator, said that as of May 8 USDA employees have been a part of 95 teams that have received “Hammer Awards for Reinvention” from Vice President Al Gore for contributions toward “putting customers first, cutting red tape, empowering employees, and getting back to basics in government.”

Whiting noted that the mode of communication for initiating and acting on waiver requests is to be electronic mail.

“We’re currently constructing a particular section on USDA’s web site where we’ll post those waiver requests which have been approved,” he said. “We want to promote maximum visibility of these waiver actions throughout the Department.”

He added that approved waivers will become effective on the date of their posting to the USDA web site.

Whiting said that, if an employee has an idea that he/she feels will improve USDA’s mission and support to its customers, but the employee has also identified an internal USDA rule which precludes the adoption of that idea, then the procedure for using this new system to waive an internal USDA rule works as follows:

First, the employee making the waiver request fills out the e-mail version of the appropriate form, titled “Request for Waiver of Internal USDA Regulation, Policy, Procedure, or Process.” That form asks the employee to provide the title of the internal rule in question, the particular provision of the rule if appropriate, and the USDA agency, office, or division that enforces the rule. The employee is then asked to describe the “Benefits of Adopting This Suggestion.”

The employee then e-mails the waiver request form to the appropriate agency-level waiver point of contact. If the waiver request involves more than one agency, then USDA’s Waiver Coordinator needs to be notified.

“The waiver point of contact will consult informally with the Office of the General Counsel,” Whiting said, “to ensure that the waiver request meets the appropriate criteria, such as that the internal rule in question is not codified in the CFR, or any of the other exceptions.”

If the waiver request passes that test, the waiver point of contact then sends the request by e-mail to the agency or office division that enforces the rule.

“If that office concurs in the waiver request, then the agency point of contact will forward the concurrence to me--and the approved waiver request will be posted on the USDA web site,” Whiting said. “But if there isn’t concurrence, then there is an established procedure which will ultimately involve a final decision by Deputy Secretary Rominger.”

He added that when an internal USDA rule is waived through this process, a notice to that effect will be published in the Federal Register, as appropriate, to notify the public of the change. “It’s the responsibility of the office which had been enforcing that rule to ensure that the Federal Register publishing takes place, if required,” he advised.

“The point of this new initiative on requesting waivers to in-house rules,” Whiting underscored, “is to help eliminate impediments to our efforts to serve our USDA customers.”

He said that the initiative is to be in place and officially launched by this summer, and employees will receive a formal announcement advising them when it has begun. 

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