[Senate Report 118-31]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 75

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session  }                                           { 118-31

======================================================================
                    DUPLICATION SCORING ACT OF 2023

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              TO ACCOMPANY

                                 S. 780

               TO REQUIRE THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE
              UNITED STATES TO ANALYZE CERTAIN LEGISLATION
             IN ORDER TO PREVENT DUPLICATION OF AND OVERLAP
        WITH EXISTING FEDERAL PROGRAMS, OFFICES, AND INITIATIVES

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                  May 16, 2023.--Ordered to be printed
                  
                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
                           WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     
                  
        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MITT ROMNEY, Utah
ALEX PADILLA, California             RICK SCOTT, Florida
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
                    Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
            Lena C. Chang, Director of Governmental Affairs
               Emily I. Manna, Professional Staff Member
           William E. Henderson III, Minority Staff Director
              Christina N. Salazar, Minority Chief Counsel
                  Andrew J. Hopkins, Minority Counsel
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     
                     
                     
                     
                                                       Calendar No. 75

118th Congress}                                           { Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session  }                                           { 118-31

======================================================================                    
 
                    DUPLICATION SCORING ACT OF 2023

                                _______
                                

                  May 16, 2023.--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. 780]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 780) to require the 
Comptroller General of the United States to analyze certain 
legislation in order to prevent duplication of and overlap with 
existing Federal programs, offices, and initiatives, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without 
amendment and recommends that the bill 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. 780, the Duplication Scoring Act of 2023, 
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 the extent practicable, 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. Additionally, the 
Comptroller General is required to submit the information to 
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director and the 
committee that reported the bill or resolution, as well as 
publish the information on the GAO website. CBO may include the 
information as a supplement to its cost estimate when 
transmitted to the committee.\1\
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    \1\On March 17, 2021, the Committee approved S. 664, the 
Duplication Scoring Act of 2021. That bill is substantially similar to 
S. 780. Accordingly, this committee report is, in many respects, 
similar to the committee report for S. 664. See S. Rept. 117-94.
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              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.\2\
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    \2\Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-139.
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    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.\3\
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    \3\Senate Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency 
Management, Statement of Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the 
United States, Hearing on Government Efficiency and Effectiveness, 
116th Cong. (May 21, 2019) (S. Hrg. 116-58).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to GAO, Congress and Executive Branch agencies 
have partially or fully addressed 621 of those recommendations 
resulting in $262 billion in financial benefit. GAO also 
estimates that by fully implementing the remaining open 
recommendations, tens of billions more dollars could be 
saved.\4\
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    \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. 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.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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, 
and fragmentation and to examine opportunities to achieve 
financial benefits. Chair Margaret 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.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\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) (S. Hrg. 117-
36).
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                        III. Legislative History

    Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), and 
Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced S. 780 on March 14, 2023. The bill 
was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs.
    The Committee considered S. 780 at a business meeting on 
March 29, 2023. The bill was ordered reported favorably by 
voice vote, with Senators Peters, Hassan, Sinema, Rosen, 
Padilla, Ossoff, Blumenthal, Paul, Lankford, Romney, Scott and 
Hawley present, and Senator Padilla recorded ``No.''

        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 2023.''

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 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. For bills or 
resolutions at risk of duplication or overlap, the Comptroller 
General is required to identify (1) the name of the new 
program, office, or initiative, (2) the bill section where it 
is established, and (3) the GAO duplication report where the 
duplication was identified. After identifying the duplication 
information, the Comptroller General is required to publish the 
information on GAO's website and submit the information to both 
the CBO Director and the committee that reported the bill or 
resolution.
    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

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


    S. 780 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 
identified in GAO's annual reports on duplicative and 
overlapping programs. The bill also would require GAO to post 
that information on its website and to provide the information 
to the Congressional Budget Office. CBO also reviews all bills 
ordered reported by a Congressional committee as part of our 
statutory requirement to provide cost estimates of those bills.
    CBO currently reviews about 700 bills a year that have been 
ordered reported by a Congressional authorizing committee. On 
that basis and using information from GAO about the number of 
people needed for GAO to also review those bills, CBO estimates 
that the additional work under S. 780 would cost more than 
$500,000 annually starting in 2024; for GAO those costs would 
total about $3 million over the 2023-2028 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.

                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                             Director, Congressional Budget Office.

       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. 780 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 any 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 the 
                Joint Resolution entitled `Joint Resolution 
                increasing the statutory limit on the public 
                debt', approved February 12, 2010 (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]