Ayotte: Congress Should Act to Eliminate Duplicative Government Programs

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released the following statement today regarding the release of a report on duplication and overlap across the federal government. The Government and Accountability Office's (GAO) fourth annual report identified 26 areas of overlap that could potentially save tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.

"With our nation $17 trillion in debt, we can't afford to continue wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars on duplicative federal programs," said Senator Ayotte. "The GAO report highlights areas where we can achieve savings through consolidating or eliminating inefficient or overlapping federal programs, and Congress should act on GAO's recommendations immediately to make our government smaller and smarter."

The past three GAO reports identified 162 areas of government duplication and cost savings. However, the GAO's 2014 report found that of the 380 recommended actions to Congress and the administration in past reports, only 123 were addressed, 172 were partially addressed and 75 were not addressed.

Last year, Ayotte introduced the bipartisan Duplication Elimination Act, which would require the president to submit a proposed joint resolution to Congress each year on how to carry out recommendations outlined in GAO's annual report. The bill would require expedited consideration of the president's proposal, requiring up-or-down votes in both the House and Senate.

Senator Ayotte backs numerous other pieces of legislation to identify and eliminate wasteful and duplicative government spending. As Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee's Task Force on Government Performance, she recently joined Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to introduce the bipartisan Government Reports Elimination Act, which would eliminate, modify or consolidate over 300 unnecessary, duplicative and outdated reporting requirements from more than two dozen federal government agencies. Last month, she helped reintroduce the Taxpayers Right to Know Act, legislation that would require federal agencies to produce an "annual report card" for all government programs, describing how they perform and their cost effectiveness.

In addition, Ayotte is a cosponsor of the Conference Accountability Act of 2013, which would impose transparency requirements and spending limitations on federal government conferences. She is also a cosponsor of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Act, which would require better reporting and initiation of plans to consolidate the thousands of federal data centers across the country that are underutilized - legislation that stands to achieve $3 billion in savings.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2014 GAO REPORT:

The GAO recommended 64 actions to address efficiency and effectiveness in 26 areas of the government. This includes 19 actions to address 11 new areas of duplication, fragmentation or overlap.

* Congress could prevent individuals from collecting full Disability Insurance benefits and Unemployment Insurance benefits at the same time, which could save $1.2 billion over ten years.

* The Internal Revenue Service could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars by enhancing its online services, which would improve service to taxpayers.

* Better communication among agencies that rely on radio communications technologies could improve interoperability and lead to significant savings.

* Congress could rescind and save an estimated $4 billion in unused credit subsidies in the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.

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