Senate committee endorses Warner anti-red tape proposal

A key Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner’s (D-VA) bipartisan initiative to eliminate or modify more than 60 unnecessary, outdated and redundant reports produced by federal agencies. The Government Reports Elimination Act, which was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs today, is the House version of Sen. Warner’s bipartisan Government Reports Elimination Act of 2014, which is cosponsored by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).

“Continuing to produce outdated or duplicate government reports year after year is a waste of time and taxpayer money, and I am pleased to see such strong bipartisan support for eliminating or modifying at least 60 of them. This is a strong start,” Sen. Warner said.  “Federal agencies should be focused on delivering results for taxpayers instead of wasting time and resources producing reports that nobody uses or even reads.”

“This common-sense, bipartisan bill carries on the past good work of this Committee in finding ways to increase efficiency in the federal government and save taxpayer dollars. This bill follows up on the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, which I introduced with Sens. Warner and Akaka, by ensuring that agencies are not spending resources and taxpayer dollars producing reports that are submitted to Congress and not used. Those of us in Congress have a responsibility to be judicious stewards of the resources taxpayers invest in America, and ensure those resources are managed honestly, transparently and effectively. This bill helps us do just that. I’d like to thank Senator Mark Warner for his leadership on this effort,” Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) said.

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of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, which required federal agencies to identify outdated or duplicative Congressionally mandated reports that could be consolidated or eliminated to direct agency resources towards more productive activities. This legislation begins eliminating reports from that list.  Additionally, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget today released a new listthat identifies 74 additional reports which it recommends for elimination or consolidation.

“At a time of staggering budget deficits, we cannot afford to continue to require agencies to produce unused, outdated reports.  I am pleased to see that OMB sent 74 new recommendations of reports to eliminate or modify today and we should act on these as well.  I will continue to push bipartisan, commonsense solutions to improve government performance and reduce waste,” Sen. Warner said.