Statement Announcing the Appointment of Richard P. Nathan as Deputy Under Secretary for Welfare Reform Planning, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

I AM pleased today to announce the appointment of Dr. Richard P. Nathan as Deputy Under Secretary of HEW for Welfare Reform Planning. While Dr. Nathan, currently Assistant Director of OMB, will be missed by his associates in the Executive office, he brings unique qualifications and a needed continuity to the greatest management challenge facing the Federal Government: the implementation of welfare reform, which I have strongly urged the Congress to enact this year.

On an across-the-board basis, the Administration has given high priority to improving the management capacity of government. Establishing the machinery to carry out the workfare concepts of welfare reform is a true test of this proposition. We must devote rigorous effort at the highest levels of government to this task now in order to be ready by the new effective dates which I have proposed for H.R. 1. This legislation represents the largest and most complex domestic undertaking in the history of the Federal Government. Preliminary planning has already been carried out. The appointment of Dr. Nathan and the establishment of a Domestic Council committee on welfare reform planning represent an acceleration of these efforts to assure fair, firm, and efficient management of welfare reform.