Hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee - GAO's Duplication Report at Five Years: Recommendations Remain Unaddressed

Hearing

Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is
authorized to declare a recess at any time.

This afternoon, the United States Government -- or
sorry -- this morning, the United States Government
Accountability Office released its annual report on duplicative
Federal programs. It has been the case for the past 5 years
there's a vast opportunity for the Federal Government to save
hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

One day before Americans have to on the -- one day before
Americans have to pay their taxes, the GAO report identifies 24
new areas where Federal Government agencies are wasting
resources. To help remedy this waste and improve the
effectiveness of our government, the report recommends more than
66 actions to save money. Some examples from this year's report
include eight Federal agencies administer more than 100 programs
to support individuals with serious mental illness. The GAO also
identifies 42 Federal, State, and local nonemergency medical
transportation programs that currently lack coordination,
leading to poor outcomes.

Further, the GAO noted that the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, often referred to as NOAA, maintains
21 separate systems to monitor sea surface temperature and 14
to measure just one -- just ocean surface wind speeds. Even NOAA
has admitted this level of redundancy is unnecessary.

Finally, the report also draws -- also draws new attention
to the broken down FOIA process at the Department of Homeland
Security. Today, Department of Homeland Security is responsible
for more than half of all reported backlog FOIA requests. This
is completely unacceptable.

All told, in the first 5 years of the report, GAO has
identified more than 200 areas with wasted Federal resources.
As a result, GAO has recommended more than 500 actions to save
money and approve efficiency. By implementing about a third of
these, GAO recommendations in prior years, the government managed
to save roughly $20 billion, which is a start, but more needs
to be done.

Addressing the remaining recommendations has the potential
to save American taxpayers $80 billion by the year 2023. Over
and again, the GAO's duplication reports have shown how precious
dollars are wasted when Federal agencies fail to work together.

GAO has specifically identified dozens of areas where increased
guidance, oversight, and coordination from OMB would create
greater efficiency. These would also reduce costs to the
taxpayers, including the way the Federal Government to acquire
needed goods and services.

Yet OMB to date has only fully addressed about a third of
GAO's recommended actions. It has to do better to fully justify
the taxpayers' trust in its mission. With Americans projected
to pay the government $1.5 trillion in individual income taxes,
we must ensure greater return on taxpayer investment by reducing
inefficiencies and redundancies.

I want to thank the GAO for, once again, providing Congress
and the executive branch with a road map to achieve the needed
savings. There are literally thousands of good men and women who
work tirelessly through the course of a year and beyond, to develop
these reports, and we very much appreciate it. Look forward to
hearing from the witnesses on how the government can make greater
progress in achieving a more efficient, effective, and
accountable government. That's what we're all here to do, and
this is a good opportunity for both sides of the aisle, the
administration, the GAO, to all to come together and discuss these
topics and figure out how we can make more of the precious Federal
dollars.

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