Federal Government Duplication

Coburn Newsletter - Federal Government Duplication

from Sen. Tom A. Coburn, MD

Last week, I focused on the rapid growth in federal bureaucracies and its many side effects. While those statistics are startling, I think it is even more important to discover the root causes fueling that growth. A major component is duplication. Federal agencies, at great cost to taxpayers and at the direction of Congress and the President, are creating new programs that duplicate existing ones within the federal government. ...

For example:

• The US Department of Education maintains more than two dozen different study abroad grant sources or programs.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found 69 overlapping early child education programs scattered at 10 different agencies.
• There are over 200 distinct federal programs to assist or encourage students to enter science and math career fields, maintained at 13 different federal agencies. These programs spend about $3 billion annually.
• There are at least 21 federal programs that support efforts to combat childhood obesity located at various federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education.
• There are 44 job training programs at nine federal agencies, operating at a cost of $30 billion.
• The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a federal agency, operates half a dozen duplicative programs to address the nation’s nursing workforce shortage.
• The Department of the Interior has at least four overlapping climate change wildlife adaptation programs, including the US Geological Survey, which is now launching Regional Climate Change Response Centers around the country. This does not include new climate change programs at the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or the US Department of Agriculture.
• Seven agencies within the Department of the Interior operate overlapping invasive species programs, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service accounting for eight programs with an invasive species component. Outside of Interior, six other federal agencies administer their own invasive species programs. Finally, the federal government has created four separate councils to better coordinate various federal invasive species programs. In total, the federal government is spending a minimum of $1.4 billion annually on these overlapping programs.
• The federal government has a minimum of 16 programs at three federal agencies aimed at addressing homelessness.
• There are 23 federal programs with a senior housing component.

In response to widespread duplication within the federal government, I have recently offered the following:

• An amendment to force the first comprehensive and regular audit of federal programs to identify duplicative federal agencies and programs. The audit will also include an estimated cost to taxpayers and recommendations for consolidation. The Senate approved this amendment in January and it is now public law.
• An amendment to consolidate hundreds of duplicative federal programs throughout the federal government. The Senate rejected these modest cuts that would have saved taxpayers over $20 billion annually.
• An amendment to return an estimated $100 billion in unspent, unobligated funds held by federal agencies to the Treasury, thereby offsetting the need to further raise our national debt limit. At the end of fiscal year 2009, federal agencies had unobligated balances of $657 billion. The Senate rejected this amendment by a vote of 37-57.
• I have also offered numerous amendments that will delay or halt implementation of new programs until existing obligations are met. I routinely object to (“hold”) any new legislation that creates a program that already exists in the federal government. These objections have eliminated hundreds of new duplicating programs, averting billions in new and unnecessary expenditures.

Let’s keep spreading the word!