[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








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                 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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\Id.
    \4\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        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.

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    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]