Crackdown on waste

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., has introduced a bill that would create a "Results Commission" to be tasked with eliminating government waste. Porter, chairman of a House panel with oversight of federal agencies, is compiling a list of what may be duplicative programs. Among them:

* The Food and Drug Administration regulates frozen cheese pizza and the Agriculture Department (USDA) regulates frozen pepperoni pizza.

* The FDA regulates beef soup and chicken broth, while the USDA regulates chicken soup and beef broth.

* There are 90 early childhood programs in 11 federal agencies within 20 different offices.

* There are 86 teacher-training programs run by nine different agencies.

* The Health and Human Services Department has 27 programs and services to prevent teen pregnancy.

* Eight agencies oversee 50 programs to aid the homeless.

* There are 591 clean air, water and waste programs managed by 29 agencies.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is vowing to renew a crusade as old as government: slashing government waste.

Porter, as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's subcommittee on the federal workforce and agency organization, shepherded a bill this year to create "Results Commissions" that would target duplicative and obsolete programs.

"As we're looking for ways to reduce the deficit, to reduce spending, I think the natural way to do it is to look at these agencies and to make sure that they can justify their existence," Porter said.

Porter's bill did not advance to a committee vote this year, but he said he was optimistic that Congress would give it serious consideration next year.

His efforts are not new. Presidents dating from Herbert Hoover have used their authority to propose waste-trimming reforms to Congress. President Ronald Reagan in 1982 created the privately funded Grace Commission to weed out waste. And Vice President Al Gore claimed waste-cutting victories as part of the Clinton administration's effort to "reinvent government."

But waste persists, Porter said. Interest in his legislation intensified after Hurricane Katrina forced Congress to rein in spending.

The bill was born in part out of frustration with red tape in government, Porter said. Constituents routinely call Porter's Henderson office because they can't get their Social Security or Medicare checks or can't get help with some federal agency.

Porter, sitting in his Capitol Hill office this week, read from a "cheat sheet" list he keeps of what may be duplicative programs.

There are 19 federal programs on substance abuse, he said.

"We need programs. But let's find out if we need 19," Porter said. "Maybe we can consolidate it into one. Or five."

Under Porter's proposal, the president would propose that bipartisan, seven-member commissions be appointed to examine specific areas of government for waste. Congress would be required to approve a commission's creation.

The commission then would make waste-cutting recommendations to the president, who could modify them. The president's proposal would be sent to Congress for an up-or-down vote, but lawmakers could not amend it.

His legislation faces a tough road in a House bitterly divided by partisan politics.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democrat who represents Washington, D.C., and the masses of federal workers who live there, has said Results Commissions would be a "radical assault on separation of powers" between the executive and legislative branches of government because it doesn't allow Congress to amend the White House recommendations.

Critics of the legislation say it would create a fast-track method for the Bush administration to eliminate programs it doesn't like.

"This is all about giving the White House a blank check for reorganizing government in its own image," said Robert Shull, director of regulatory policy for OMB Watch, a government accountability group.

Shull added that sometimes "duplication" is necessary. For example, Shull said, Congress created the Appalachian Regional Commission because federal environmental and welfare programs had not reached the disadvantaged people of Appalachia.

Shull also noted that it was the responsibility of Congress' many oversight committees to cut government waste.

But Porter allies say those committees don't do their job. And they note that Congress would retain the power to vote down a commission recommendation.

"This would be a way to look, we hope, more objectively at these programs," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "The Results Commission is a useful tool under any circumstances, but particularly, like now, when Congress is having trouble deciding where to reduce spending."

Porter also faces the massive federal bureaucracy itself, which is already fighting to preserve its union-protected jobs.

In May, Porter's panel held a hearing on the government's food-safety program, split among 10 agencies. Officials from several agencies testified about frozen pizza inspections, among other topics.

"Each argued that they needed to have oversight over these pizzas," Porter said. "One was frozen cheese. One was frozen pepperoni. They literally argued in committee over how much they needed to have their own jurisdictions.

"It's turf. It's ridiculous. It's a waste of taxpayers dollars."

Benjamin Grove can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at grove@lasvegassun.com.