-Senate Effort to Respond to GAO Report
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) today announced bicameral, bipartisan efforts to directly respond to the recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on overlapping and duplicative government programs. Leader Cantor and Senator Coburn have been working together on how Congress goes about implementing solutions that eliminate duplicative programs and reduce wasteful spending.
Leader Cantor stated, “At a time when we continue to borrow nearly 40 cents of each dollar we spend, we must ensure that each dollar is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. Partnering with Senator Coburn and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, these bipartisan, bicameral efforts will directly address the extremely concerning GAO report that identified billions of dollars in taxpayer money that is going to waste on duplicative and overlapping federal programs. On the House side, I have asked each Committee Chairman to look at the recommendations specific to their committee and report on what can be done in response to this report. But that alone isn’t sufficient.
Cantor continued, “In the past, conflicting committee jurisdictions have made it extremely difficult to eliminate the duplication identified by GAO and achieve efficiencies for taxpayers. In the coming days we will be working to set up a process so that members from the various affected committees can work together to propose crosscutting solutions, focusing on at least three specific areas that we can address most quickly. Families and businesses throughout the country have tightened their belts and are doing more with less and they deserve a government that spends their money like they do.”
“I applaud Leader Cantor for his leadership in this effort. The way to restore fiscal sanity in Washington is a billion dollars at a time. This report shows Congress could spend the rest of the year going program by program and produce massive savings while improving the quality of services across the government. I have already introduced legislation based on these findings and will introduce more bills and amendments throughout the year. The federal government is on an unsustainable course. If we don’t make these choices ourselves the rest of the world will force us to make hard choices. Implementing these recommendations should be the easy part,” Dr. Coburn said.
Leader Cantor stated, “At a time when we continue to borrow nearly 40 cents of each dollar we spend, we must ensure that each dollar is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. Partnering with Senator Coburn and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, these bipartisan, bicameral efforts will directly address the extremely concerning GAO report that identified billions of dollars in taxpayer money that is going to waste on duplicative and overlapping federal programs. On the House side, I have asked each Committee Chairman to look at the recommendations specific to their committee and report on what can be done in response to this report. But that alone isn’t sufficient.
Cantor continued, “In the past, conflicting committee jurisdictions have made it extremely difficult to eliminate the duplication identified by GAO and achieve efficiencies for taxpayers. In the coming days we will be working to set up a process so that members from the various affected committees can work together to propose crosscutting solutions, focusing on at least three specific areas that we can address most quickly. Families and businesses throughout the country have tightened their belts and are doing more with less and they deserve a government that spends their money like they do.”
“I applaud Leader Cantor for his leadership in this effort. The way to restore fiscal sanity in Washington is a billion dollars at a time. This report shows Congress could spend the rest of the year going program by program and produce massive savings while improving the quality of services across the government. I have already introduced legislation based on these findings and will introduce more bills and amendments throughout the year. The federal government is on an unsustainable course. If we don’t make these choices ourselves the rest of the world will force us to make hard choices. Implementing these recommendations should be the easy part,” Dr. Coburn said.
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