Great expectations

Two years into the Bush administration, federal managers are regaining some of the power they lost during the Clinton years. The Clinton administration cut their numbers by 40,000 and ordered agencies to create labor-management partnerships to give unions a stronger voice in day-to-day operations.

Vice President Al Gore and his reinventing government team rarely missed an opportunity to blame managers for creating the silly rules that get in the way of empowered employees. The administration forced the demotion of thousands of managers to meet its arbitrary goal of doubling the "span of control" between supervisors and subordinates. Even the word "manager" fell out of favor. Far better to be called a team leader, coach or mentor.

The Bush administration is not about to create thousands of new management jobs, but there is no talk of cuts, either. Bush abolished the labor-management partnerships created under Clinton. And the administration is busily designing a personnel system for the new Homeland Security Department that would give managers sweeping authority to reward and discipline employees. Bush banned collective bargaining among the 70,000 baggage and passenger screeners at the Transportation Security Administration and abolished the union representing 1,000 employees at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. If this administration knows the phrase "employee empowerment," it's not using it.