Senator Ayotte recently met with the federal Government Accountability Office comptroller general about ways to make the Federal government more efficient:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) met today with Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to discuss ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of federal government programs and eliminate duplication, waste, and fraud.
"I was glad to meet today with Comptroller General Dodaro to discuss how Congress and GAO can work together to achieve savings through eliminating inefficient or duplicative government programs," said Senator Ayotte, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We need to streamline and modernize government wherever possible, and I will continue my efforts to find common sense reforms that make government smaller and smarter."
In April, GAO released its fourth annual report on duplication and overlap across the federal government, which identified 26 areas of overlap that could potentially save tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Senator Ayotte urged Congress to act immediately on GAO's recommendations.
Last year, Ayotte introduced the bipartisan Duplication Elimination Act, which would require the president to submit a proposed joint resolution to Congress each year on how to carry out recommendations outlined in GAO's annual report. The bill would require expedited consideration of the president's proposal, requiring up-or-down votes in both the House and Senate.
Senator Ayotte backs numerous other pieces of legislation to identify and eliminate wasteful and duplicative government spending. As Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee's Task Force on Government Performance, she joined Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) to introduce the bipartisan Government Reports Elimination Act, which would eliminate, modify or consolidate over 300 unnecessary, duplicative and outdated reporting requirements from more than two dozen federal government agencies. She also helped reintroduce the Taxpayers Right to Know Act, legislation that would require federal agencies to produce an "annual report card" for all government programs, describing how they perform and their cost effectiveness.
Additionally, Ayotte is a cosponsor of the Conference Accountability Act of 2013, which would impose transparency requirements and spending limitations on federal government conferences. She is also a cosponsor of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Act, which would require better reporting and initiation of plans to consolidate the thousands of federal data centers across the country that are underutilized - legislation that stands to achieve $3 billion in savings.