Cuellar Leads Bipartisan Effort to Slash Wasteful Spending

WASHINGTON — Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, is leading a bipartisan and bicameral effort to identify and eliminate wasteful agency spending and save taxpayers money.

The vehicle for his effort is the Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act, which Cuellar introduced in the House with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

A companion Senate bill was introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.

Both bills would create a system to help agencies better identify wasteful programs and assist Congress with developing legislation to eliminate them. 

“I authored the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act back in 2010 to cut down wasteful government spending. The Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act builds on that legislation to further protect taxpayer dollars,” Cuellar said in a written statement. 

He also applauded the other sponsors of the bills “for working with me to deliver commonsense, bipartisan solutions to reduce federal spending.”

Mace said in a statement that the bottom line is the proposed legislation respects the value of a dollar and will make federal agencies more accountable to taxpayers.

“Government is bloated and reckless with its spending. Waste is everywhere … the bipartisan Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act brings commonsense solutions to fix this,” she said.

The bill would require the following steps to be taken:

First, agencies identify wasteful or duplicative programs to potentially eliminate, based on Office of Management and Budget guidance.

Next, agencies publish the list of programs in the federal program inventory and send the lists to Congress.

Last, agencies may then submit to Congress recommendations for legislation to eliminate or consolidate the programs identified.

The bill has already been endorsed by the National Taxpayers Union, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, the R Street Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute Center for Funding America’s Future.

“Unnecessary or duplicative programs hurt taxpayers by wasting limited tax dollars,” said Andrew Lautz, director of federal policy at the National Taxpayers Union. 

“This good governance legislation would require federal agencies to work with Congress on eliminating or consolidating unnecessary or duplicative federal programs,” he said.

“Cutting down on wasteful government spending is common sense, and it’s why I helped bring together members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle to introduce legislation to save taxpayer dollars,” Hassan said. “I urge all of my colleagues to join us in supporting this bipartisan bill and work together to help address wasteful government spending.”

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