House Passes Murphy Legislation to Cut Govt Spending

from the inbox:

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved bipartisan legislation cosponsored by Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA) that takes unprecedented action to reduce government spending by examining the effectiveness of federal programs. H.R. 2142, The Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act of 2010, increases oversight, identifies and eliminates duplicative initiatives, and improves the performance of federal programs.

“Washington needs to take a hard look at which programs are inefficient, duplicative, or performing poorly and root them out,” said Congressman Patrick Murphy. “This is a fiscally responsible bill that cuts wasteful spending and improves government performance.”

The legislation requires the federal government to adopt the same type of performance-based budgeting standards that are being used successfully in many state governments to rein in spending and reduce government waste, fraud and abuse.

Under the bill, the heads of federal agencies, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), must identify short-term and long-term spending goals for their agencies. Each agency must assess performance on a quarterly basis and determine whether they are meeting the goals they have identified to ensure federal taxpayer dollars are being spent in an effective manner. These assessment reports will be available to the American public, giving people information on federal agencies’ strengths and weaknesses.