78-05-A8

- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1978

<< Previous Broadcast

Next Broadcast >>

Government [Renegotiation]

Transcript About two years ago Congress decided not to extend the legislation which had created The Renegotiation board. This meant the board would officially expire in October 1976. Well here it is a year and a half or more later and the Renegotiation board is alive and well in Washington. The board was established to renegotiate government contracts, when and if it was thought that someone was making an excess profit. Through technically dead it remains active because of a legalism that permits it to wind up its backlog of cases. That backlog involves some $156 billion in open cases which will keep the board alive for at least 10 years. Well we can understand that--a backlog is a backlog. But the board has a yen for longevity so there has been a change in its own regulations. The change of course was made by the board itself. Under the amended regulation it will take jurisdiction over all defense contracts signed under the Foreign Military Sales Act of 1968. Heretofore these contracts were not audited by the Renegotiation board. Some senators have asked the General Accounting office to look into the legality of the new regulation. If that doesn't work we've got a born again bureaucracy. If I seem to talk a lot about regulations you'll have to remember there are a lot of regulations to talk about. For example H.E.W. has one that requires foreign born doctors to show. they can speak English before they are allowed to practice medicine in our land. Obviously there can be no quarrel with that one. An examining physician must be able to understand what a patient is telling him with regard to where his aches and pains are located. But, as with so many good ideas that start out in the marble halls of government, the results can sometimes be hard to understand. There is a little town named Velva (population 1500) in North Dakota . Velva has been trying to hire a doctor named Ian Foster to replace the town's only doctor who wants to retire. But H.E.W. regulation has kept Dr. Foster waiting a year. The problem has to do with that language test . Dr. Foster passed North Dakota's licensing exams and signed a contract with Velva to begin practicing last October. But he first had to take H.E.W.'s Visa Qualification Exam which is given every September and only then. The English test was an inflexible prerequisite. Well, something delayed the processing of his scores and this, plus the set date for the English exam, made him miss the cutoff date for the 1977 exam. Now he and Velva's retiring doctor and Velva must wait till this next September before the change can take place. What makes the whole delay pretty ridiculous is that Dr. Foster practices in Canada, is British-born and has spoken English all his life. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 78-05-A8 Production Date 04/03/1978 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes