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Senators Hassan and Paul Reintroduce the Duplication Scoring Act to Reduce Waste and Save Taxpayer Dollars

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a member of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, and U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, reintroduced the Duplication Scoring Act, which seeks to save taxpayer dollars by eliminating duplicative programs and prevent further duplication within the federal government.

“Preventing even more duplicative programs within the federal government is a commonsense way to prevent wasteful government spending,” said Senator Hassan. “This bipartisan bill will save taxpayer dollars and resources, and I will continue working to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.”

“As we fight to rein in current wasteful spending, this reform would better enable Congress to make more fully informed decisions by adding a layer of oversight that will help stop waste in government before it ever happens,” said Dr. Paul.

In the last 10 years, Government Accountability Office (GAO) has documented more than 1,800 cases of duplicative programs. In its most recent report, GAO found the U.S. government has saved about $600 billion by adopting GAO’s recommendations. While it will take time to eradicate all of the identified duplication, this bill would work to prevent Congress from standing up these programs in the first place.

The Duplication Scoring Act seeks to prevent the creation of new fragmented, overlapping, and duplicative government programs by:

  • Requiring GAO to review each committee-reported bill or joint resolution and determine if it at risk of duplicating or overlapping with an existing program, office, or initiative previously identified in a GAO duplication, fragmentation, and overlap report.
  • Requiring GAO to submit this assessment to the director of CBO and the corresponding Committee.

Senator Hassan is working to cut waste, fraud, and abuse and save taxpayer dollars. In April, in her role as Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, Senator Hassan helped lead a hearing focused on ways to use artificial intelligence and data to improve government efficiency.

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