Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) applauded last night’s House passage of the Government Reports Elimination Act (H.R. 4194), a bipartisan initiative to eliminate or modify more than 50 unnecessary, outdated, or duplicative federal reports required of more than a dozen federal agencies.
House passage, which followed unanimous Senate approval of the companion Warner-Ayotte version on September 16, means the bipartisan legislation now goes to the President to be signed into law. Among the reports to be eliminated under the legislation: a Department of Homeland Security annual report on illegal imports of products made with dog or cat fur, and a Department of Agriculture report on the number of acres of peanuts planted each year.
Additionally, Senators Warner and Ayotte today introduced the Reports Reduction Act of 2014, which would eliminate or modify an additional 67 unnecessary reports.
“Eliminating or modifying these outdated and often useless reports is a simple but effective step towards cutting waste and improving efficiency in the federal government,” Sen. Warner said. “Hundreds of federal employees spend countless hours producing mountains of these reports each year, and in many cases no one ever reads or even refers to those reports. Surely these agency resources could be targeted to smarter, more productive efforts that will actually provide more direct benefit to customers and taxpayers. Getting rid of 50 unnecessary reports is a solid start, but we can and should go even further, and I am pleased Sen. Ayotte and I will partner together once again to take aim at an additional 67 federal reports produced each year.”
“The elimination of 50 government reports is a positive first step toward making government smaller and smarter, but there are additional areas where we can achieve savings,” said Sen. Ayotte. “Senator Warner and I have identified additional reports that can be eliminated or modified in an effort to streamline government, and we’ll continue our efforts to protect taxpayers by eliminating duplication and waste in federal programs and making government more efficient.”
Sen. Warner serves as Chairman of the Budget Committee’s bipartisan Government Performance Task Force,and Sen. Ayotte serves as the Ranking Republican Member. The Task Force was established in 2009 to examine how the government measures the cost-effectiveness of federal programs with a goal of saving taxpayer dollars. Sen. Warner was a lead sponsor of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, which required federal agencies to identify outdated or duplicative congressionally mandated reports that could be consolidated or eliminated to direct agency resources towards more productive activities. In addition, Sen. Warner was lead sponsor of the bipartisan Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which standardizes federal spending data and ensures it is made available online so taxpayers can access information about how their tax dollars are being spent.
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