Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed Sen. Mark R. Warner’s (D-VA) initiative to eliminate or modify more than 50 unnecessary, outdated or redundant reports to Congress produced by federal agencies every year.
The Government Reports Elimination Act (H.R. 4194), which was approved unanimously late Tuesday, is the House version of Sen. Warner’s Government Reports Elimination Act of 2014, which is cosponsored in the Senate by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO). House sponsors are Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA)
“Continuing to produce outdated or duplicate government reports year after year is a waste of time and taxpayer money. This represents a solid start, and I am grateful to see such strong bipartisan support for eliminating or modifying at least 50 of them,” 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.”
Sen. Warner serves as Chairman of the Budget Committee’s bipartisan Government Performance Task Force. 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of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, which required federal agencies to identify outdated or duplicative congressionally mandated reports that could be consolidated or eliminated to direct agency resources towards more productive activities. This legislation begins eliminating reports from that list.
“Government needs to be streamlined and modernized, and bills like this are important to help achieve that goal,” Sen. Ayotte, who serves as Ranking Member on the Government Performance Task Force, said. “This common sense legislation is part of my ongoing efforts to protect taxpayers by eliminating duplication and waste in federal programs and making government more efficient. I will continue to work to find places to save taxpayer dollars and make government smaller and smarter.”
“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.
As Governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006, Sen. Warner worked to implement businesslike reforms that made state government more efficient and cost-effective, resulting in Virginia’s designation as the nation’s best managed state in the Pew Charitable Trust’s independent 2005 Government Performance Project. In the Senate, Sen. Warner has also passed the bipartisan Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which standardizes federal spending data and ensures it is made available online so Virginians can access information about how their tax dollars are being spent.
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