II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION 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. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 14, 2023 

Mr. PAUL (for himself and Ms. HASSAN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Duplication Scoring 

5 Act of 2023’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ASSESSMENTS OF REPORTED BILLS BY GAO. 

7 Section 719 of title 31, United States Code, is 

8 amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(i)(1) In this subsection— 

2 ‘‘(A) the term ‘covered bill or joint resolution’ 

3 means a bill or joint resolution of a public character 

4 reported by any committee of Congress (including 

5 the Committee on Appropriations and the Com6 mittee on the Budget of either House); 

7 ‘‘(B) the term ‘Director’ means the Director of 

8 the Congressional Budget Office; 

9 ‘‘(C) the term ‘existing duplicative or overlap10 ping feature’ means an element of the Federal Gov11 ernment previously identified as an area of duplica12 tion, overlap, or fragmentation in a GAO duplication 

13 and overlap report; 

14 ‘‘(D) the term ‘GAO duplication and overlap re15 port’ means each annual report prepared by the 

16 Comptroller General under section 21 of the Joint 

17 Resolution entitled ‘Joint Resolution increasing the 

18 statutory limit on the public debt’, approved Feb19 ruary 12, 2010 (31 U.S.C. 712 note); and 

20 ‘‘(E) the term ‘new duplicative or overlapping 

21 feature’ means a new Federal program, office, or 

22 initiative created under a covered bill or joint resolu23 tion that would duplicate or overlap with an existing 

24 duplicative or overlapping feature. 

25 ‘‘(2) For each covered bill or joint resolution— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the Comptroller General shall, to the ex2 tent practicable— 

3 ‘‘(i) determine the extent to which the cov4 ered bill or joint resolution creates a risk of a 

5 new duplicative or overlapping feature and, if 

6 the risk so warrants, identify— 

7 ‘‘(I) the name of the new Federal pro8 gram, office, or initiative; 

9 ‘‘(II) the section of the covered bill or 

10 joint resolution at which the new duplica11 tive or overlapping feature is established; 

12 and 

13 ‘‘(III) the GAO duplication and over14 lap report in which the existing duplicative 

15 or overlapping feature is identified; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) submit the information described in 

17 clause (i) to the Director and the committee 

18 that reported the covered bill or joint resolu19 tion; and 

20 ‘‘(iii) publish the information prepared 

21 under clause (i) on the website of the Govern22 ment Accountability Office; and 

23 ‘‘(B) subject to paragraph (3), the Director 

24 may include the information submitted by the Comp25 troller General under subparagraph (A)(ii) as a supVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Mar 22, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S780.IS S780

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1 plement to the estimate for the covered bill or joint 

2 resolution to which the information pertains sub3 mitted by the Director under section 402 of the 

4 Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 653). 

5 ‘‘(3) If the Comptroller General has not submitted 

6 to the Director the information for a covered bill or joint 

7 resolution under paragraph (2)(A)(ii) on the date on 

8 which the Director submits the estimate for the covered 

9 bill or joint resolution to which the information pertains 

10 under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 

11 1974 (2 U.S.C. 653), the Director may, on the date on 

12 which the Comptroller General submits the information to 

13 the Director, prepare and submit to each applicable com14 mittee the information as a supplement to the estimate 

15 for the covered bill or joint resolution.’’. 

16 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

17 The amendment made by this Act shall take effect 

18 on the earlier of— 

19 (1) the date that is 60 days after the date on 

20 which the Director of the Office of Management and 

21 Budget next, in accordance with section 1122(a) of 

22 title 31, United States Code, updates the informa23 tion made available on the website required under 

24 that section; or 


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1 (2) the date on which a new Congress begins 

2 after the date that is 1 year after the date of enact3 ment of this Act. 

Æ 


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