The Bush administration has issued a statement regarding its management agenda, designed to answer common criticisms from federal unions and others who are critical of the various initiatives. For example, the statement says that contrary to the criticism that its proposed personnel changes are designed to save money, “the goal of personnel reform is not to save money, but to better serve employees and the American people by requiring agencies to better manage, develop, and reward employees.” The statement repeats the administration’s oft-voiced criticism of the pay system for not making distinctions between levels of performance and said that under its approach, if an employee is a good performer, he or she will attain higher pay levels faster. The administration also denied that it “wants to gut employee rights, including limiting the right to appeal actions managers take against employees,” that it is “rushing to implement government-wide personnel reform before the experiments at Defense and Homeland Security have had a chance to prove they work,” or that “under the new reforms proposed by the administration, employee appraisals and pay raises will be based on political cronyism and favoritism.”