From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Comptroller General Testifies to U.S. House on
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness

Description: In his April 8, 2014, testimony to the U.S. House of
Representatives, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro provides an overview of
GAO's 2014 Annual Report on opportunities to reduce fragmentation,
overlap, and duplication and achieve other financial benefits for the
federal government. He also follows up on progress from past Annual
Reports. 

Related GAO Works: GAO-14-478T: Government Efficiency And Effectiveness:
Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and
Achieve Other Financial Benefits; and GAO-14-343SP: 2014 Annual Report:
Additional Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and
Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits

Released: April 2014

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House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform April 8, 2014

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Actions Needed to Reduce Duplication, Overlap and Fragmentation

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Comptroller General
Gene L. Dodaro
Opening Statement

>> Mr. Dodaro, since you're the only one that will be formally doing an
opening statement, you may take such time as you may need, but your
entire opening statement will be placed in the record and you're
recognized.

>> Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon to you, Ranking
Member Cummings, Congressman Mica, Congressman Desjarlais. 

I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss GAO's 2014
report. In this report, we identify 26 new areas in addition to the 162
areas we identified before. Eleven of the areas deal with overlap,
fragmentation, and potential duplication in the federal government. Half
of those 11 areas deal with the Department of Defense. And one example I
would provide today has to do with systems to control their satellite
operations. What we found is they're using more dedicated systems rather
than shared systems over a period of time in the last several years in
particular, during the last decade, which means that they're fragmented
systems and potentially duplicative and so they have one system for one
satellite, as opposed to having one ground-based system that would save
hardware, software, and personnel costs that could service many
satellites. We think implementation of our recommendations in this area
could save millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. 

We also found duplication and overlap in special payments that are made
for unemployment insurance and disability insurance. Those programs are
meant to operate separately but there's a potential loophole where we
found that people can receive both benefits at the same time. In effect,
the federal government's replacing lost income from these individuals
twice, not just once, as intended. CBO has said that enactment of a
legislation to close this loophole could save $1.2 billion over a
10-year period of time. 

We also found 15 other areas where there are opportunities for cost
savings. One example I would cite is the Alternative Technology Vehicle
Manufacturing Loan program. We found that there's $4.2 billion in
already-appropriated credit subsidy costs that are available but the
Department of Energy has not demonstrated a need for that money and we
recommended that unless they do, Congress could rescind all or a portion
of the $4.2 billion. There's really not a lot of active applications for
loans under that program currently. 

We also found that there's opportunities to collect amounts of
delinquent taxes. for example, in not issuing passports to people who
have delinquent taxes that are owed to the federal government. Right
now, you can collect child support payment that way but you can't
prevent somebody from getting a passport. CBO estimates that if a
provision is passed to allow them to allow the State Department to
withhold passports from people with delinquent taxes to federal
government could receive about $500 million in a five-year period of
time. 

Also, there's the ability to potentially offset payments of delinquent
taxes to Medicaid providers; right now, that is able to be done for
Medicare, but not for Medicaid. Additional revenues could accrue to the
federal government as a result of that. 

Now, in addition to identifying new areas, we tracked the 162 areas that
we recommended previously, and they had about 300 -- over 380 specific
actions that needed to be taken. If I draw your attention to the chart
that we have here, the dark blue on the bottom shows the increase in the
amount of areas that have been addressed over time. So roughly of the
over 380 actions that have been recommended by us, about a third have
been implemented. The partially implemented are another 44 percent and
about 19 percent haven't been addressed at all, either by the Executive
Branch or the Congress. Now, the areas that have been addressed, as you
mentioned Mr. Chairman, we can score the savings that occur after the
fact. Of the areas that have been addressed, over $10 billion has
already been saved to the federal government because of actions by the
Congress and by the Executive Branch, and those actions will also result
in the future of about another $60 billion in savings over a period of
time. And some of these areas, Mr. Chairman, as you mentioned, were used
to help offset the sequester last year so that we were able to take
targeted reductions without disrupting services to the public
unnecessarily. 

So there has been action on many of the recommendations, billions of
dollars is being saved, will be saved, but there's a lot yet still on
the table to be dealt with that could lead to a lot more savings and
more efficient and effective operations for the American taxpayers. So
we're dedicated to continuing to follow up on these areas, Mr. Chairman,
and we thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.