New Diet for the Federal Government : Goodby to the Board of Tea Experts as Clinton shrinks agency staffs and advisory panels.

President Clinton pledged last year to squeeze some of the fat out of government and drive down the paralyzing deficits. He is beginning to make good on that promise.

The White House has eliminated more than a quarter of the 800 discretionary advisory boards, including many honorary, powerless and unnecessary committees not mandated by law. And, on Wednesday, Clinton signed legislation that will downsize the federal government, saving an estimated $22 billion over five years.

The Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994 requires reductions of 272,900 employees before the end of 1999. To ease the need for layoffs, the new law allows departments and agencies to offer buyouts of up to $25,000 in a lump sum determined by an employee’s age and length of service, plus severance pay based solely on tenure. This incentive should encourage more senior and better-paid employees to leave government service, without robbing agencies and departments of younger and cheaper workers.

Based on Vice President Al Gore’s vision of a more efficient federal work force, the law will reduce the federal government to fewer than 2 million workers, the lowest level since 1966. The Clinton Administration insists the cutbacks will make government cost less. That’s a given. The White House also believes the reductions will make government work better. That remains to be seen.

In the austerity move aimed at the federal advisory committees, the White House has abolished 284 of the panels, set up to give guidance to various departments and agencies. A saving of about $17 million is expected to result from elimination of annual allowances, per diem stipends, staff support, overhead and travel.

These committees allow citizens, who are appointed, and in at least a few cases politically well-connected, to contribute to federal deliberations or lend their expertise to departments such as Health and Human Services on complex subjects. Some panels, such as the committees that recommend a new drug, are valuable; others are superfluous.

Before the White House made the cuts, 28,000 Americans served on these boards. Some of the federal bodies were obviously and painfully obsolete. The eliminated panels include the Board of Tea Experts, established in 1897 to inspect and taste imported tea, the Advisory Panel on Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the Advisory Panel for Political Scientists and the Civil War Sites Advisory Committee. The government really didn’t need all those private advisers on an on-going basis.

Belt-tightening is never without pain. These reductions are a start--but only a start--toward ratcheting down Washington’s huge deficits.