| For Immediate Release | Contact: Mark Carpenter/Tom Finnigan |
| June 5, 2004 | (202) 467-5300 |
(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today remembers President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), who past away Saturday at the age of 93. As the 40th president of the United States, he left a long legacy, including the first major effort to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal government.
On June 27, 1983, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12369 establishing the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, better known as the Grace Commission after its chairman, J. Peter Grace. President Reagan directed the Commission to “work like tireless bloodhounds to root out government inefficiency and waste of tax dollars.” For two years, 161 corporate executives and community leaders led an army of 2,000 volunteers on a waste hunt through the federal government. The search was funded entirely by voluntary contributions of $76 million from the private sector; it cost taxpayers nothing.
The Grace Commission made 2,478 recommendations which, if implemented, would save $424.4 billion over three years, an average of $141.5 billion a year all without eliminating essential services. The 47 volumes and 21,000 pages of the Grace Commission Report constituted a vision of an efficient, well-managed government that is accountable to the taxpayers.
After the Commission completed its report, Grace combined with muckraking journalist Jack Anderson to form CAGW in 1984. The goal was to make President Reagan’s vision a reality. Through the implementation of some of the Grace Commission’s 2,478 recommendations, CAGW has helped save more than $700 billion since its inception.
“President Reagan forever changed the way people view the role of government,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “His demand for a smaller, more efficient government set the standard for fiscal responsibility in politics. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.