Graves Moves to Cut Waste, Duplication from Federal Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Sam Graves introduced legislation eliminating duplicative programs from the federal budget. The Improving All Government Efficiency (IMAGE) Act will force federal agencies to adopt suggestions for waste reduction identified in recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports.

"A lot of hard decisions have to be made in order to get our debt under control, but cutting programs like these should be a no-brainer," Rep. Graves said. "Every year the Government Accountability Office puts out a report identifying billions of dollars' worth of waste, and every year their suggestions go ignored. That is simply unacceptable."

In 2011, GAO began issuing an annual report with areas of overlap and duplication in the federal budget, highlighting opportunities for executive agencies or Congress to cut spending. The IMAGE Act requires each federal agency to implement GAO's suggestions. At the end of every fiscal year, each federal agency that fails to adopt GAO's suggested reforms would automatically have its budget cut by 1 percent.

The GAO reports can be found by visiting www.gao.gov/duplication/.

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