Pappas, Carey, Duarte, Donalds Call on OMB to Implement Pappas Provisions to Reduce Government Waste

Today, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), alongside Representatives  Mike Carey (OH-15), John Duarte (CA-13), Byron Donalds (FL-19), sent a letter calling on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to consider the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual report on federal programs with fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative goals during the budget process. By doing so, OMB would be able to reduce costs, reduce the deficit, and ensure that these programs can be administered more effectively.

Last year, Pappas introduced the bipartisan Fighting Presidential Budget Waste Act, which would require the OMB to do just this when preparing its annual budget proposal. 

The lawmakers wrote, “As we continue working to bolster our economy, it’s critical that the government take advantage of every opportunity to reduce our deficit,” and highlighted GAO’s annual report, which they noted has already identified opportunities to “save American taxpayers billions of dollars by eliminating overlapping and duplicative federal programs.”

They continued saying, “That’s why we introduced the Fighting Presidential Budget Waste Act, which will require the President to consider GAO’s report when preparing the President’s annual budget submission and cut down on wasteful spending and programs within the budget, ensuring greater productivity of the federal government,” and closed calling for OMB to take the report into consideration regardless of the fact that this legislation has not yet been passed into law, urging budget writers to “incorporate our bill’s recommendations by considering the GAO’s recommendations as urgently and substantively as possible.”

The full text of the letter can be found here and below:

Dear Director Young:

We write to urge the Office of Management and Budget to incorporate the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office’s annual report on federal programs with fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative goals as you draft the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. By doing so, we can implement commonsense fiscal reforms that will enable the federal government to save billions in taxpayer funds.

As we continue working to bolster our economy, it’s critical that the government take advantage of every opportunity to reduce our deficit. The Government Accountability Office’s report titled “Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Billions of Dollars in Financial Benefits” identifies ways in which the federal government can be more effective and cost efficient. The outlined corrective measures in the report aim to save American taxpayers billions of dollars by eliminating overlapping and duplicative federal programs. 

That’s why we introduced the Fighting Presidential Budget Waste Act, which will require the President to consider GAO’s report when preparing the President’s annual budget submission and cut down on wasteful spending and programs within the budget, ensuring greater productivity of the federal government. However, as the drafting process for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget request has already begun, we urge you to incorporate our bill’s recommendations by considering the GAO’s recommendations as urgently and substantively as possible. 

Thank you for your work preparing the budget proposal and for your attention to this important issue.