House clears bill to reduce government reports

The House on Wednesday cleared legislation to reduce the number of government reports to Congress found to be unnecessary or outdated.

In the first vote of the lame-duck session, the House passed the measure, H.R. 4194, by a vote of 382-0.

{mosads}The Office of Management and Budget released a list of more than 300 plans and reports deemed to be potentially outdated or duplicative. The legislation ultimately narrowed down the number of unnecessary reports to to 48. Another five would be eliminated or streamlined.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said his panel had consulted all the other panels on which federal agency reports are still necessary.

“The Government Report Elimination Act is part of the committee’s effort to reduce waste and duplication in the federal government. We have spent more than a year working with each House committee, vetting each section to ensure that a report that would be useful from an agency is maintained,” Issa said.

Issa said he hoped passage of the legislation would establish an annual precedent for gradually eliminating all outdated government reports.

“We started with a much larger report list and we believe that this progress under this bill sets a tone for an annual elimination of reports that have become outdated or unnecessary,” Issa said.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) noted that the Congressional Budget Office had estimated the legislation would save about $1 million over the next five years.

“This bill will bring greater efficiency to the overall government of the United States,” Norton said.