[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 48 (Thursday, March 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1736-S1737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUNSHINE WEEK
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise to submit to the Senate a statement
in support of Sunshine Week, an annual event that spotlights the key
need of a government-transparency. Without openness and access to how
all levels of government spend tax dollars or make key decisions,
accountability and oversight will lack.
Where transparency is lacking, waste, fraud, and duplication tend to
proliferate. The Government Accountability Office-GAO-regularly cites
``lack of transparency'' as a chronic problem across many agencies and
programs. This can have serious consequences. This causes increased
taxpayer spending and improper payments. This hinders competition. In
turn, a lack of transparency can affect everything from public health
to our national defense.
Given the profound and far-reaching impacts of Federal programs and
policies, the people need to know how their tax dollars are being
spent.
Without access to reliable, accurate information, how can we be sure
good decisions are being made when it comes to spending the tax dollars
of hard-working families? Sure that the policies we craft in this
Chamber are working as intended? Sure that our limited resources go
where they are needed most? Sure that the programs we create aren't
causing harm?
Well that is why, as the chairman of the Budget Committee, I have
focused the last several years on enhancing transparency and improving
both the quality and quantity of data available for all decisionmakers.
I am extremely gratified that my colleagues from both sides of the
aisle, along with key organizations and experts, so often join these
efforts.
One step in the right direction is the Senate Budget Committee has
started to publish regular scorekeeping reports. These are available
for the public on the committee's website and track the budgetary
impact of legislation approved by Congress against current spending
levels. This helps provide other committees, Members of Congress, and
taxpayers with ongoing updates about the fiscal implications of
recently agreed upon legislation.
In addition, there are obviously many unknowns when it comes to
agencies implementing the laws and programs already on the books. To
address this concern, I led a bipartisan group of 15 Senators last
July, along with Senator Lankford, to urge the White House Office of
Management and Budget to make a complete list of all Federal programs
publicly available in a central, governmentwide website. This would
help to identify and eliminate program waste and duplication. Because,
believe it or not, there is no comprehensive list of each and every
program the Federal Government funds. It still isn't available.
The fact that legislators and taxpayers don't even know how many
programs we have or what they do is troubling, particularly as we
continue to create and fund new ones.
In the past, GAO has identified massive amounts of duplication across
the Federal Government, including more than 12 programs on financial
literacy, 160 Federal housing assistance programs or activities, 94
green building initiatives, 253 crime prevention programs, 14 diesel
emission reduction programs, 45 early learning and child care programs,
and 163 STEM programs.
Most recently, GAO's 2019 annual report on duplication found six
different government programs engaged in quantum computing research.
Clearly, all of these programs could be improved by some basic
coordination or consolidation.
This simple inventory has been on the to-do list for almost a decade.
There have been previous attempts, but those have fallen short. We will
continue working with GAO and OMB until the list is actually published.
Most importantly, last fall, I joined with Senator Whitehouse to
introduce bipartisan budget process reform legislation--the first
bipartisan budget reforms approved by the Senate Budget Committee since
1990.
The Bipartisan Congressional Budget Reform Act would increase
transparency in the congressional budget process in a number of ways--
by having Congress develop a fiscal plan that is easy to understand and
offers the public a chance to view if Congress is living within its
means, encouraging other committees to review the programs in their
jurisdiction that are in most need of review, directing both GAO and
the Congressional Budget Office to review program portfolios-portfolios
are groups of programs with
[[Page S1737]]
similar efforts. This has to be done on an ongoing basis.
But that is not all the bill would do. We also need to require CBO to
review and report to Congress on the accuracy of its past projections
and cost estimates, along with an annual plan outlining their efforts
to enhance transparency. We need to make public the information
underlying cost estimates of major legislation and reports related to
the debt-to-GDP ratio agreed upon in the budget resolution. We need to
require CBO to provide more information to help better understand the
true costs of our actions by including projected interest costs in
estimates for mandatory spending programs, revenue changes, and
supplemental appropriations bills.
We need CBO to include 10 years of cost estimates for spending
subject to appropriations, doubling the current practice of 5 years. We
need to bring budget gimmicks into the light. CBO would have to produce
public estimates of appropriations legislation that include the costs
associated with doling out money before the revenue comes in. We should
expose gimmicks like budget bait and switch.
In Washington, we like to say that ``sunlight is the best
disinfectant,'' and that is true, but sunlight does far more than
disinfect. It lights the way. Opening the books and reforming the
budget process will help make us better equipped to face the enormous
fiscal challenges looming just ahead.
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