G.A.O. Releases Report March 18, 2011 on Numerous Duplicate Federal Government Programs

From the announcement:

List of Selected Federal Programs That Have Similar or Overlapping Objectives, Provide Similar Services, or Are Fragmented Across Government Missions
GAO-11-474R March 18, 2011

Summary
This report supplements our March 1, 2011, report Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue--GAO's first annual report to Congress in response to a statutory requirement to identify federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives, either within departments or governmentwide, which have duplicative goals or activities. Section I of that report touched on hundreds of federal programs government wide that we found have similar or overlapping objectives, provide similar services to the same populations, or are involved in government missions that are fragmented across multiple agencies. As noted in our March 1 report, the presence of fragmentation and overlap can suggest the need to look more closely at the potential for unnecessary duplication. However, determining whether and to what extent programs are actually duplicative requires programmatic information that is often not readily available. In addition, while we have reported on examples where duplication, overlap, and fragmentation can hinder program performance and cause inefficiencies, we recognize that there could be instances where some degree of program duplication, overlap, or fragmentation may be warranted due to the nature or magnitude of the federal effort. For details on the extent to which we found the programs listed in this report to be fragmented, overlapping, or possibly duplicative. This report provides a more detailed listing of programs we identified in several areas discussed in our March 1 report.

We included nine areas for which we provided specific numbers of programs in Section I of our March 1 report. These areas contain hundreds of government programs that are fragmented across multiple agencies or, in some cases, within the same agency or department. The end of this report contains enumerated lists of programs in each of the nine areas and provides funding information where available. While there is no standard definition for what constitutes a federal program, for the purposes of this report, programs include grants, initiatives, centers, loans, funds, and other types of assistance. This report does not list programs related to every area of potential duplication we identified in our March 1 report because many of those areas focus on activities or functions--such as business systems modernization or interagency contracting--performed by departments, agencies, military services, or other entities that are not programs per se. The programs listed here are from those sections of the report where we listed specific numbers of overlapping or fragmented programs. Furthermore, the areas we identified are not intended to represent the full universe of duplication, overlap, or fragmentation within the federal government. GAO will continue to identify additional areas in future reports.

From the 25 page report:

Economic development programs
Enclosure I names 80 economic development programs and provides funding information when available.

Surface transportation programs
Enclosure II contains over 100 surface transportation programs identified by the Department of Transportation.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants
Enclosure III lists the 17 different Department of Homeland Security grant programs FEMA manages and provides funding information for these programs in fiscal year 2010.

Domestic food assistance programs
Enclosure IV lists the 18 domestic food nutrition and assistance programs on which the federal government spent more than $62.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.

Homelessness programs
Enclosure V provides a list of over 20 federal programs across seven different departments that provide shelter or housing assistance.

Transportation services for transportation-disadvantaged persons
Enclosure VI contains a list of 80 programs across eight different departments that GAO identified as providing transportation services to transportation-disadvantaged persons, at a cost of at least $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2009.

Page 2 GAO-11-474R List of Selected Federal Programs That Have Similar or Overlapping Objectives

Employment and training programs
Enclosure VII lists 47 federal employment and training programs GAO identified—44 overlap with at least one other program in that they provide at least one similar service to a similar population.

Teacher quality programs
Enclosure VIII lists the 82 federal programs supporting teacher quality improvement.

Financial literacy efforts
Enclosure IX lists 56 federal financial literacy programs identified by federal agencies. However, the interpretation of what constituted a discrete “program” varied widely among the agencies we surveyed.

To read this 25 page report in detail, go here: www.gao.gov...


It appears that we have an incredible number of duplicate programs set up to serve the same purpose. Sounds to me like a major consolidation of federal programs is needed..... and NOW!

So ATS members..... do you think that this will ever happen or is this report just a show for members of Congress?

I know!

They are called the army, navy, air force, and marines! Duplacate Fedeal Government Progams! Wasting billions of our taxpayer dollars a year on a socalist entitlement system!

reply to post by whatukno


The army, navy, air force, and marines all do different things though