Growls

Thanks to “a provision inserted by Sen. (Tom) Coburn (R-Oklahoma) into a law that raised the federal borrowing limit last year,” the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Tuesday that detailed “34 major areas of wasteful government spending,” according to the the Wall Street Journal and the Foundry, a blog of the Heritage Foundation.

According to the cover letter of GAO's report to Congress (requires Adobe):

“This is GAO’s first annual report to Congress in response to a new statutory requirement that GAO identify federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives, either within departments or governmentwide, which have duplicative goals or activities. Congress asked GAO to conduct this work and to report annually on our findings. This work will inform government policymakers as they address the rapidly building fiscal pressures facing our national government. GAO’s most recent update of its annual simulations of the federal government’s fiscal outlook underscores the need to address the long-term sustainability of the federal government’s fiscal policies.”

Damian Paletta wrote in part in the Wall Street Journal article: “The agency (i.e., GAO) found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help people understand finances . . . .”

The Washington Examiner began their editorial yesterday this way:

“Nobody with even minimal knowledge of how public bureaucracies work should be surprised by the Government Accountability Office's conclusion that there is a "staggering level of duplication" in the federal government. Duplication is inevitable when professional politicians in both major parties go for decades using tax dollars to buy votes among favored constituencies, and reward friends, former staffers, family members and campaign contributors with heaping helpings from the pork barrel. With the inevitable program duplication also comes an endless supply of official duplicity as presidents, senators and representatives rationalize spending billions of tax dollars on programs they know either don't work as promised, or that perform the same or similar functions as existing efforts and are therefore redundant.

"This report will make us look like jackasses," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., predicted Monday when he read an advance copy of the GAO report . . . .” (emphasis added)

Here is a link to the GAO report, but be forewarned that it’s 345-pages long. You may want to start with a look at Table 1, which provides a summary of the 34 major areas, and begins on page 5. Two examples:

• Economic Development: Area identified: The efficiency and effectiveness of fragmented economic development programs are unclear. Federal agencies and programs where duplication, overlap or fragmentation may occur: USDA, Department of Commerce (Commerce), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Small Business Administration (SBA); 80 programs involved

• Social Services: Area identified: Actions needed to reduce administrative overlap among  domestic assistance programs. Federal agencies and programs where duplication, overlap or fragmentation may occur: USDA, DHS, and HHS; 18 programs involved

In their cover letter, GAO summarizes the results of their work this way:

“Overlap and fragmentation among government programs or activities can be harbingers of unnecessary duplication. Reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could potentially save billions of tax dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and effective services. The areas identified in this report are not intended to represent the full universe of duplication, overlap, or fragmentation within the federal government. We will continue to identify additional issues in future reports.”

If Senator Coburn’s remark about the report making Congress looking like jackasses raises your blood press or get your blood boiling, I can only wonder why you are even reading Growls. But if the GAO report does indeed upset you, then start calling your Congress Critter on Capitol Hill -- 202-224-3121 -- or, join your local Tea Party organization.

UPDATE (3/4/11). Two items.

First, Brandon Greife blogs at the National Taxpayers Union's blog, Government Bytes writes about the GAO report:

Eliminating bureaucratic waste while making government more efficient for taxpayers should be a no-brainer for Congress. But as Reagan said, “no government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.” Fortunately, Rep. Jeff Duncan, has introduced a bill to resurrect the “Committee on Reduction of Nonessential Federal Programs” tasked with identifying and cutting redundant federal programs. The idea, a throwback to the “Byrd Committee,” which sought out government waste to ease the stress on the nation’s finances prior to World War II, is a welcome idea given Congress’ $1.65 trillion overspending problem. It’s also the perfect prescription given the GAO’s grim diagnosis.

Second, in their weekly wastebasket today, Taxpayers for Common Sense writes:

We’re going to assign some required reading for lawmakers searching for money-saving ideas as they tackle the upcoming budget bills. The taxpayers’ in-house watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), just produced a report the length of a winter novel outlining government programs that waste dollars by duplicating functions in other agencies. The list reads like a tragicomedy: From Agriculture to Defense, Economic Development to Energy, Homeland Security to Income Security, the report reveals money lying in plain sight for programs we are paying once, twice, three times or more for. Sure we’ve heard about some of this before, but we can’t afford any more dithering, we need concentrated action from Congress.

The report highlights many programs that Taxpayers for Common Sense has long warned are at risk for waste. The agency was cautious about assigning a dollar figure to eliminating duplicative programs, but Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) ventured a guess of up to $200 billion. Why the hesitancy? Because the potential for savings is so dependent on how much actual overlap there is and how deep the reforms and consolidation would go. But with the country staring down the barrel of a $1.65 trillion budget deficit, there’s no time like the present for Congress to ramp up oversight of these programs and lay down clear, well-defined, and measurable metrics for success.