Senate advances legislation designed to prevent wasteful federal spending
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KENTUCKY (WKYT) – The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs advanced an act on Thursday designed to prevent wasteful federal spending.
The act, named the Duplication Scoring Act, was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul.
Documents say the Government Accountability Office has found more than 1800 cases of duplicate programs in around 10 years and the federal government has saved around $600 billion by adopting regulations from the GAO.
These savings have only accounted for around 66% of the identified programs, officials say, meaning taxpayer dollars are still being wasted on duplicate or overlapping programs.
The Duplication Scoring Act will require the GAO to review each committee-reported bill or joint resolution and make decisions on if it overlaps with existing programs or entities, documents say.
The GAO will then be required to submit its findings to the Congressional Budget Office and the corresponding committee, according to officials.
The effective date of the Act is set for 60 days after the Director of the Office of Management and Budget next updates available information for the relevant section, or when a new Congress begins after one year of the Act’s enactment.
