[Senate Report 117-94]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 308
117th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 117-94
_______________________________________________________________________
DUPLICATION SCORING ACT OF 2021
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 664
TO REQUIRE THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED
STATES TO REVIEW CERTAIN LEGISLATION IN ORDER TO
IDENTIFY POTENTIAL RISKS OF DUPLICATION OF AND OVERLAP WITH EXISTING
FEDERAL PROGRAMS, OFFICES, AND INITIATIVES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
March 16, 2022.--Ordered to be printed
_________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
99-011 WASHINGTON : 2020
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
ALEX PADILLA, California MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia RICK SCOTT, Florida
JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
Lena C. Chang, Director of Governmental Affairs and Senior Counsel
Emily I. Manna, Professional Staff Member
Pamela Thiessen, Minority Staff Director
Andrew C. Dockham, Minority Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director
Allen L. Huang, Minority Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 308
117th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 117-94
======================================================================
DUPLICATION SCORING ACT OF 2021
_______
March 16, 2022.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 664]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 664) to require the
Comptroller General of the United States to review certain
legislation in order to identify potential risks of duplication
of and overlap with existing Federal programs, offices, and
initiatives, having considered the same, reports favorably
thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill, as
amended, do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary.............................................. 1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation.......................... 2
III. Legislative History.............................................. 3
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported............. 3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact.................................. 4
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................ 4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............ 5
I. Purpose and Summary
The purpose of S. 664, the Duplication Scoring Act of 2021,
is to help prevent duplication of and overlap with existing
Federal programs, offices, and initiatives in proposed
legislation. The legislation requires the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) to review each committee-reported
bill or joint resolution and determine if it is at risk of
duplicating or overlapping with an existing program, office, or
initiative previously identified in a GAO duplication,
fragmentation, and overlap report. If it is determined that the
bill or resolution is at risk of duplication or overlap, GAO is
required to identify the name of the new program or initiative,
the section of the bill where it is established, and the GAO
duplication report where the previous duplication was
identified, to submit the information to the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) Director and the committee that reported
the bill or resolution, and to publish the information on the
GAO website. CBO may include the information as a supplement to
its cost estimate when transmitted to the committee.
II. Background and the Need for Legislation
In 2010, Congress passed and the President signed into law
the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010. Among other budgetary
matters, the bill required the Comptroller General to provide
an annual report to Congress identifying programs, agencies,
offices, and initiatives with duplicative goals and activities,
the cost of such duplication, and recommendations for
consolidation or elimination.\1\ In the first eight annual
reports issued from 2011 to 2018, GAO recommended more than 800
actions to Congress or Executive Branch agencies to reduce or
eliminate duplication and overlap, save costs, and enhance
revenue.\2\
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\1\Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-139, 124
Stat. 8.
\2\Senate Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency
Management, Hearing on Government Efficiency and Effectiveness, 116th
Cong. (2019) (Statement of Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the
United States).
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According to GAO, Congress and Executive Branch agencies
have partially or fully addressed 621 of those recommendations
resulting in $262 billion in financial benefits.\3\ GAO also
estimates that by fully implementing the remaining open
recommendations, tens of billions more dollars could be
saved.\4\
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\3\Id.
\4\Id.
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On May 21, 2019, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro appeared
before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and
Emergency Management to review GAO's 2019 duplication,
fragmentation, and overlap report and discuss opportunities to
reduce overlap and achieve cost savings for the Federal
Government.\5\ During the hearing, an exchange occurred between
Subcommittee Chairman Rand Paul and Comptroller General Dodaro
about preventing duplication and overlap in the Federal
Government from existing in the first place.\6\ Senator Paul
suggested that, given the amount of programmatic information
GAO has accumulated over the past eight duplication reports,
they work with CBO to review bills that have been reported by
committees and report to Congress if they are duplicative of
another element in the Federal Government. Comptroller General
Dodaro affirmed that this would be a worthy objective to help
prevent the creation of new programs that already exist.\7\
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\5\Id.
\6\Id. (Statements of Sen. Rand Paul, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management and Gene L. Dodaro,
Comptroller General of the United States).
\7\Id.
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On May 12, 2021, Mr. Dodaro appeared again before the
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight
Subcommittee for a hearing to examine the findings and
recommendations of GAO's annual report on duplication, overlap,
fragmentation and to examine opportunities to achieve financial
benefits. Chair Maggie Hassan and Ranking Member Rand Paul
reiterated their reasoning for sponsoring the Duplication
Scoring Act again in the 117th Congress and reviewed
opportunities for reducing duplication within the federal
government.\8\
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\8\Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight,
Hearing on Examining the Findings and Recommendations of GAO's 2021
Report on Duplication, Overlap, Fragmentation and Opportunities to
Achieve Financial Benefits, 117th Cong. (May 12, 2021).
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III. Legislative History
Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH),
James Lankford (R-OK), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Rick Scott (R-FL)
introduced S. 664 on March 10, 2021. The bill was referred to
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 664 at a business meeting on
March 17, 2021.
The Committee ordered the bill reported favorably en bloc
by voice vote with Senators Peters, Rosen, Padilla, Portman,
Johnson, Lankford, Romney, Scott and Hawley present.
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported
Section 1. Short title
This section provides the short title of the bill as the
``Duplication Scoring Act of 2021.''
Section 2. Assessments of reported bills by GAO
Section 2 adds a new subsection (i) to Section 719 of title
31, United States Code. Subsection (i)(1) defines ``covered
bill or joint resolution,'' ``Director,'' ``existing
duplicative or overlapping feature,'' ``GAO duplication and
overlap report,'' and ``new duplicative or overlapping
feature.''
Subsection (i)(2) paragraph (A) requires the Comptroller
General, to the extent practicable, to determine the extent to
which each committee reported bill or joint resolution is at
risk of creating a new program, office, or initiative that is
duplicative of or overlaps with an element of the Federal
government previously identified in a GAO duplication report.
If it is determined that the bill or resolution is at risk of
duplication or overlap, the Comptroller General is required to
identify the name of the new program, office, or initiative,
the section of the bill where it is established, and the GAO
duplication report where the duplication was identified, to
submit the information to the CBO Director and the committee
that reported the bill or resolution, and to publish the
information to the GAO website.
Subsection (i)(2) paragraph (B) allows the Director to
submit the information provided by the Comptroller General as a
supplement to its cost estimate for the bill or resolution.
Subsection (i)(3) specifies that if GAO has not submitted
the information on the bill to the Director by the date the
cost estimate is submitted to the Committee, the Director would
be allowed to submit the information as a supplement to the
cost estimate once it is received.
Section 3. Effective date
This section establishes the effective date as the earlier
of: (1) 60 days after OMB issues the agency program inventory
list required under section 1122(a) of Title 31; or (2) the
start of a new Congress that is one year after the date of
enactment.
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs
on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, April 5, 2021.
Hon. Gary C. Peters,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 664, the Duplicate
Scoring Act of 2021.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew
Pickford.
Sincerely,
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director.
Enclosure.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. 664 would require the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) to review all legislation that has been reported by any
Congressional committee to determine if that legislation
includes programs that would duplicate or overlap with programs
that GAO has identified in its annual reports on duplicative
and overlapping programs. The bill also would require GAO to
post this information on its website and to provide the
information to CBO. CBO also reviews all bills ordered reported
by a Congressional committee as part of our statutory
requirement to provide cost estimates of those bills.
Over the last 10 years CBO has reviewed, on average, about
650 bills a year that have been ordered reported by a
Congressional authorizing committee. On that basis and using
information from CBO and GAO about the number of people needed
for GAO to also review those bills, CBO estimates that the
additional work under S. 664 would cost less than $500,000
annually; for GAO those costs would total about $2 million over
the 2021-2026 period and for CBO those costs would be
insignificant over the same period. Any additional spending
would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew
Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
S. 664 as reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed
to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in
italic, and existing law in which no change is proposed is
shown in roman):
TITLE 31
* * * * * * *
Subtitle I--General
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER 7--GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
* * * * * * *
Subchapter II--General Duties and Powers
* * * * * * *
SEC. 719. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORTS.
(a) * * *
* * * * * * *
(i)
(1) In this subsection--
(A) the term `covered bill or joint
resolution' means a bill or joint resolution of
a public character reported by an committee of
Congress (including the Committee on
Appropriations and the Committee on the Budget
of either House);
(B) the term `Director' means the Director of
the Congressional Budget Office;
(C) the term `existing duplicative or
overlapping feature' means an element of the
Federal Government previously identified as an
area of duplication, overlap, or fragmentation
in a GAO duplication and overlap report;
(D) the term `GAO duplication and overlap
report' means each annual report prepared by
the Comptroller General under section 21 of
Public Law 111-139 (31 U.S.C. 712 note); and
(E) the term `new duplicative or overlapping
feature' means a new Federal program, office,
or initiative created under a covered bill or
joint resolution that would duplicate or
overlap with an existing duplicative or
overlapping feature.
(2) For each covered bill or joint resolution--
(A) the Comptroller General shall, to the
extent practicable--
(i) determine the extent to which the
covered bill or joint resolution
creates a risk of a new duplicative or
overlapping feature and, if the risk so
warrants, identify--
(I) the name of the new
Federal program, office, or
initiative;
(II) the section of the
covered bill or joint
resolution at which the new
duplicative or overlapping
feature is established; and
(III) the GAO duplication and
overlap report in which the
existing duplicative or
overlapping feature is
identified; and
(ii) submit the information described
in clause (i) to the Director and the
committee that reported the covered
bill or joint resolution; and
(iii) publish the information
prepared under clause (i) on the
website of the Government
Accountability Office; and
(B) subject to paragraph (3), the Director
may include the information submitted by the
Comptroller General under subparagraph (A)(ii)
as a supplement to the estimate for the covered
bill or joint resolution to which the
information pertains submitted by the Director
under section 402 of the Congressional Budget
Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 653).
(3) If the Comptroller General has not submitted to
the Director the information for a covered bill or
joint resolution under paragraph (2)(A)(ii) on the date
on which the Director submits the estimate for the
covered bill or joint resolution to which the
information pertains under section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 653), the
Director may, on the date on which the Comptroller
General submits the information to the Director,
prepare and submit to each applicable committee the
information as a supplement to the estimate for the
covered bill or joint resolution.
[all]