Rep. Herseth Sandlin Votes to Make Government More Efficient, Effective, and Accountable

Press Release

Today Rep. Herseth Sandlin joined colleagues in voting to pass H.R. 2142, the Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act of 2010. The bill is one of a series of pieces of legislation contained in the Blue Dog Blueprint for Fiscal Reform. Other key parts of the Blueprint include statutory pay-as-you-go spending laws, which the President signed into law earlier this year, and the Fiscal Commission, which is scheduled to give its report to Congress in December. To read more about the Blue Dog Blueprint, click here.

H.R. 2142 will help Congress conduct more effective oversight, make better-informed authorization and appropriation decisions, identify and eliminate duplicative programs, and help improve the performance of federal programs.

"South Dakotans deserve a transparent government that is efficient and accountable. I believe we need to pay for our priorities and part of that is having the information needed to make the tough decisions. We need transparent data about the performance and efficiency of federal agencies in order to make fiscally responsible budgetary decisions." Herseth Sandlin said.

The Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act of 2010 requires:

* Cross-Cutting Agency Goal Setting: In conjunction with OMB, agencies must identify and set cross cutting, outcome based goals to ensure that government pursues objectives that have direct value to the American people;
* Performance Assessments: Federal agency heads must determine progress in meeting established goals and the effectiveness of agency management;
* Quarterly Assessment Reports and Agency Progress with critical information on federal program strengths and weaknesses;
* Agency Performance Improvement Officers and a Performance Improvement Council to supervise the performance management activities of agencies and assist in the development of performance standards;
* GAO Oversight: The Government Accountability Office will evaluate whether selected goals are tied to real outcomes, whether agencies are efficiently spending taxpayer dollars and will provide recommendations for improvement.

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