FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 04, 2011 

CONTACT: Clark Pettig
Office: (202) 225-5802

Peters Launches Bipartisan Initiative to Cut Waste from Federal Budget
New Legislation Aims to Save Taxpayers Billions Every Year

Washington, DC - American taxpayers are spending billions every year on programs that the government has already identified as wasteful or duplicative – and now Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI) is launching a bipartisan effort to force Congress to take action.

On Thursday, Rep. Peters and Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) introduced a bipartisan measure (H.Res.142) that will force congressional committees to hold hearings on programs deemed duplicative by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Last year, Congress required the GAO to provide an annual report detailing duplicative and wasteful programs across the federal government. The bill introduced by Peters and Gardner would mandate that Congress hold hearings on these programs within 90 days of the publication of each new report.  Click here to read the most recent GAO report.

“We must get serious about cutting the deficit, and there’s no excuse for allowing wasteful or duplicative programs to continue. Washington is wasting billions of hard-earned American tax dollars every year, and once the GAO identifies a redundant program, Congress should take action immediately to save taxpayers’ money,” said Rep. Gary Peters. “Restoring fiscal responsibility is not a partisan issue, Democrats and Republicans must work together to make sure that waste, duplication and inefficiency are eliminated.”

“The GAO makes it abundantly clear that Congress hasn’t done a good job minding the books, and the goal of this resolution is to take a closer look at programs that could be combined or eliminated entirely - with the potential for savings reaching into the billions it would be irresponsible not to evaluate the programs that have been identified as redundant,” Rep. Cory Gardner said. "This measure is a bipartisan initiative with Rep. Peters’ office, and we hope to achieve a broad coalition of support."

According to the most recent GAO report, the U.S. government has more than 100 programs dealing with surface transportation issues, with the overlap costing $58 billion annually. There are 82 federal programs monitoring teacher quality, 80 programs for economic development, 47 for job training, 20 devoted to homelessness and 17 different grant programs for disaster preparedness. 

Rep. Peters has experience fighting to eliminate waste from the federal budget. Last year, Peters launched the Spending Cuts and Deficit Reduction Working Group, a team of lawmakers that introduced $72 billion in deficit reduction measures.

On the Web
Read the GAO Report
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11318sp.pdf

Text of Reps. Peters and Gardner’s Bipartisan Legislation (H.Res.142)
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.RES.142.IH:

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