(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) praised House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for his comments calling for a commission to eliminate duplication and fragmentation in federal agencies. 

On September 29, 2015, Leader McCarthy appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and was asked about his priorities should he be elected Speaker of the House in October.  In part, McCarthy said, “One of the best examples we can do: In ’91 we had a peace dividend because of the Soviet Union collapse.  So, we created what was called a BRAC to look at our military, because it was all designed to battle the Soviet Union.  We couldn’t do it piecemeal so we put a commission together and we had one vote, up or down. Why don’t we bring a commission together with a simple principle of eliminating duplication?”

CAGW was founded following the release of the Grace Commission report in 1984, the last time a comprehensive examination of the federal bureaucracy took place.  In 1994, CAGW supported then-Rep. Sam Brownback’s (R-Kan.) proposal to establish the Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies (CARFA), which would operate like the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC).  While BRAC’s mandate covered only military facilities, CARFA would examine all federal agencies on three criteria:  Duplicative, wasteful/inefficient, and outdated/irrelevant/failed. The commission would then submit to Congress recommendations on which agencies and programs that should be realigned or eliminated, as well as proposed legislation to implement these reforms.  Congress would take an up-or-down vote on the entire package within an expedited time frame.

CAGW President Tom Schatz highlighted CARFA during his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on January 9, 2014, as he has done numerous times in previous testimony.

“Taxpayers know that the government is too large and too intrusive,” said Schatz.  “They are frustrated that not enough has been done to eliminate the duplication and overlap that permeates the federal bureaucracy.  Even though implementation of Grace Commission and CAGW recommendations has helped save taxpayers more than $1.3 trillion since 1984, and therefore progress has been made in the battle against waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government, the time has come for a new, thorough review and accounting of federal agencies and programs.  Reports from inside and outside the government, such as GAO’s five annual reports on duplication and overlap and CAGW’s Prime Cuts 2015, can help guide the new commission in its activities.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. 

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