Garrett’s Bipartisan Legislation to Cut Duplication Passes House

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, delivered the following statement today on H.R. 6570 (To amend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to consolidate certain CBO reporting requirements):

“Under the current law, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is statutorily required to submit regular reports to Congress pursuant to TARP and stimulus requirements (ARRA).  Unfortunately, the reports have become mainly duplicative and do not provide a lot of new information to Congress.  In addition, these reports consume a great deal of limited CBO staff resources.  To remedy this, the House passed H.R. 6570 to reduce the paperwork burden on CBO, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

“Specifically, H.R. 6570 would change stimulus reporting requirements for CBO and GAO to an annual report requirement due at the end of each calendar year and would also sunset the ARRA reporting requirements of CBO and GAO on January 1, 2016.  H.R. 6570 would not impact the current reporting requirements for recipients of ARRA funds, or the reports required by executive branch agencies.  Furthermore, H.R. 6570 would change the TARP reporting requirements for CBO and the OMB to an annual basis from a semiannual basis.  This legislation would also sunset the reporting requirements for CBO and OMB to when the last TARP asset has been sold or transferred out of the ownership or control of the federal government. 

“This is a common-sense bill to reduce government duplication and ensure that Congressional support agencies such as CBO and GAO are using their limited resources most effectively.”

Click here for a link to the video.

###