Bills
| 3.23.22

Should the Federal Gov’t Eliminate Duplicative Programs & Prevent the Creation of More? (S. 2183)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. 2183?

(Updated November 19, 2019)

This bill — the Duplication Scoring Act of 2019 — would eliminate duplicative federal government programs and prevent the formation of future duplicative federal government programs. 

Specifically, this bill would: 

  • Require the administration to achieve $10 billion in savings by consolidating federal programs identified in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual duplication reports within 150 days of this bill’s enactment.
  • Require GAO to post duplication reports on its website and provide this information to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) going forward.
  • Ask the president to identify and submit to Congress legislative changes that are necessary to further enable consolidation, elimination, or streamlining of duplicative programs or activities. 
  • Require the CBO to include an assessment of the extent to which a piece of legislation creates new duplication within the government in its legislative cost estimates.

Argument in favor

Duplicative federal government programs are a waste of taxpayer dollars and agencies’ efforts. Eliminating these programs will help save money and reduce unnecessary spending. At a time of ballooning federal budgets and an out-of-control national deficit, this is of the utmost importance.

Argument opposed

Since the CBO already produces an annual report detailing cost-saving opportunities across the federal government, there’s no need for this bill. Legislators who want to propose cost-saving measures for federal agencies can use the existing CBO report. Additionally, some duplication may be desirable.

Impact

Duplicative federal government programs; GAO; CBO; and federal savings through elimination of duplicative federal programs.

Cost of S. 2183

The CBO estimates that this bill would take less than $500,000 annually to implement, at a $2 million cost over the 2020-2024 period.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) reintroduced this bill from the 114th Congress to reduce the size of government by eliminating duplicative programs and preventing further duplication within the federal government: 

“Our nation cannot continue to pile debt on top of debt, mortgaging our children’s future for wasteful spending today. My bill will lead to real savings right away by cutting wasteful duplicate spending, which is something everyone should agree on.”

House sponsor Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) says: 

“Our government loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year to wasteful or low-priority spending, and eliminating this waste has been one of my top priorities throughout my time in Congress.  There is no question we can find hundreds of billion dollars of waste in the government’s budget because of unnecessary, duplicative, or overlapping programs. Having the Government Accountability Office review legislation will help expose the areas where Congress is creating duplicative or overlapping programs, helping get our spending and bloated government under control.”

This legislation has three bipartisan Senate cosponsors, including two Republicans and one Democrat. Its House companion is sponsored by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). In the 114th Congress, it didn't have any cosponsors and didn’t receive a committee vote.


Of Note: The GAO produces an annual report that suggests potential cost savings for the government and taxpayers. Many of these suggestions are related to duplication across agencies or departments. However, there’s no official government mechanism to check whether pending legislation would add to accidental duplication.


Media:

Summary by Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / John M. Chase)