This Week in Waste – June 27, 2025
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior.
House Oversight Hearing Proves USPS Privatization is Dead
The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Government Operations June 24, 2025, hearing on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) buried the idea of privatizing the Postal Service. The witnesses and subcommittee members agreed that privatization (which requires congressional approval) is not an option to fix the Postal Service’s myriad financial and delivery issues. CAGW President Tom Schatz reiterated his proposals from his June 20, 2025, op-ed in The Hill, including pausing the implementation of Delivering for America plan, ending the construction of new processing facilities, freezing hiring for all personnel except for letter carriers, and terminating the Regional Transportation Optimization Initiative, along with increased public-private partnerships. Read more here.
CAGW Declares Victory over Biden’s Broadband Regulators
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has rescinded broadband price controls and other non-statutory requirements in the Notice of Funding Opportunity for Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program. These changes will accelerate broadband deployment by removing obstacles like rate regulations, labor mandates, and technology preferences, allowing states more flexibility to connect unserved and underserved areas. This achievement is a major victory for taxpayers. Read more here.
DC Phases Out a Streetcar No One Desired
Washington, D.C., is phasing out its costly and controversial H Street Corridor streetcars. Opened in 2016, the streetcar promised but failed to increase efficiency, plagued by traffic interference and low ridership. Its demise should be a warning for other cities to not fall for the romance of streetcars. Read more here.
CAGW Submits Comments to the United States Trade Representative Regarding Most Favored Nation Price Controls
Adopting a most favored nation policy would import prices controls from other countries, undermine American innovation in biopharmaceuticals, threaten manufacturing jobs, and fail to achieve its goal of reducing drug prices. The administration should instead reduce regulations, encourage free-market solutions, negotiate better trade deals, encourage U.S. innovation, and get foreign countries to pay their fair share. Read more here.
OMB announces effort to improve auditing and build off the work of DOGE
A June 23, 2025, memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cited inefficient audits and required to adopt new audit guidelines to make government spending more transparent and accessible. OMB will require the use of a single-year audit format and employ independent auditing firms to “audit the auditors,” looking to integrate them with program oversight, performance management, and root cause analysis. OMB is also hoping to make the data more reliable by gathering it more frequently. Read more here.
Federal Cuts Target Appalachian Regional Commission
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reduce the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding from $200 million to $14 million. A June 23, 2025 article in The Intelligencer quotes a CAGW’s blogpost in that “regional commissions are redundant and lead to excessive congressional earmarks from representatives eager to enrich their districts.” The decision to reduce funding for the ARC emulates the recommendation to cut all funding in CAGW’s 2024 Prime Cuts report, but Congress should not stop at just one regional commission. Read more here.
A Tax Loophole that Puts America Last
The Senate should not eliminate the One Big Beautiful Bill provision that would close the double-duty drawback loophole. A June 23, 2025, op-ed in The Washington Examiner quotes a CAGW’s blogpost which noted that, “tobacco companies are moving their manufacturing overseas to avoid paying the excise tax on cigarettes.” The loophole discourages domestic manufacturing and will cost taxpayers $12.1 billion over the next 10 years. Read more here.
