From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: U.S. Comptroller General Testifies to U.S. Senate on
2023 Duplication and Cost Savings Report

Description: In his June 14, 2023, testimony to the U.S. Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S.
Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro, head of the GAO, spoke about GAO's
2023 annual report on federal programs, agencies, offices, and
initiatives that have duplicative goals or activities. The report
discusses new opportunities for achieving billions of dollars in
financial savings and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a
wide range of federal programs. 

Related GAO Works: 

GAO-23-106864, Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Opportunities to
Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Billions of
Dollars in Financial Benefits

GAO-23-106089, 2023 Annual Report: Additional Opportunities to Reduce
Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Billions of Dollars
in Financial Benefits 

Released: June 2023

 [ Gene Dodaro: ]
Thank you very much, Chair Hassan and Senator Romney. Good to see both
of you today. I first want to say how appreciative we are at GAO of this
subcommittee's continued interest in this work. It's very important. And
what we've seen is persistence over time will pay off and that a number
of these recommendations have been implemented. 
  
I've been very pleased, you know, we've made over 1800
recommendations. 74% have been fully or partially implemented. It's
saved, as you noted in your opening statement, about $600 billion so
far. You know, when we started this work was Senator Coburn, years ago,
he predicted $300 billion. So he wouldn't be surprised, though, where we
are right now.
  
And there's many much more to do, though, and tens of billions of
additional dollars that could be saved. This year's report, we recommend
100 new actions. For example, one is there are over 130 programs
administered by 15 different agencies for expanding broadband throughout
the country. These are all worthwhile efforts, but they could be better
coordinated. We've recommended the national strategy where we could
actually better measure, make sure there's good coordination. 
  
Senator Romney, you mentioned disaster assistance. This year, we
outlined 30 different federal departments and agencies that are involved
in that disaster recovery and response. And this has been developed over
incrementally over a 40 year period of time. And with the advent of more
frequent and severe efforts, FEMA's stretched very thin. And there needs
to be a comprehensive look again at better ways to be able to deal with
people who are affected by disasters. So we've recommended that that be
taken a fresh look at and have a good reassessment. 
  
We've also recommended in an area of providing support to tribes and
their members. There are 22 programs that try to provide economic
development and assistance at seven different agencies. There's supposed
to be an Office of Native American Development and Commerce, but hasn't
had a director and hasn't been staffed since 2011. And so, you don't
really have good leadership and coordination in that area. 
  
There's a First Responder Network Authority that was set up to put in
place an interoperable system for police and firemen and all our first
responders. And they made some good progress in that area. But the
authority needs to be reauthorized in order to make sure that this
network continues and that they can collect billions of dollars in
revenue to support the operation, maintenance and improvement of this
network going forward. Otherwise, the investment that's been made so far
will be for not. 
  
  OPM, for example, we recommended that they do a better job identifying
and removing ineligible family members in the Federal Employee Health
Benefit Program, which is the largest program in the country. They
estimate that there's anywhere from $360 million to almost a billion
dollars in improper payments because they haven't done this effort. And
Senator Romney, you're right, the government has a payment problem. It's
got a fraud problem. I'd be happy to talk more about that in the Q and
A. 
  
  Then there's, also, we recommended a number of areas in the Defense
Department, whether it's artificial intelligence strategies, how to
dispose of unneeded military equipment, how to purchase commercial
satellite imagery and analysis, and how to do predictive maintenance to
lower the maintenance costs at DOD. There could be a much better job in
managing fragmentation, overlap and duplication within DOD itself. 
  
  And then there's a number of open recommendations we still have from
prior work. One I'd mention in particular that CBO's already scored this
one at $140 billion in savings over a ten year period of time, and that
is to equalize the payment process for evaluation services of doctors in
their offices, between doctor's offices at hospitals and those in
private practice. Right now, we pay more for the affiliation with the
hospital. If we equalize it, and it would save beneficiaries money, too,
on co-pays. So this is a win for the government. And I'm very concerned
and I know both of you are, with the fact that the Medicare Hospital
trust fund is close to being depleted. So we have to look for ways and
we have other suggestions as well.
  
  So, again, thank you for the opportunity to be here today and I'm
happy to respond to questions.

[ End ]

For more info, check out our report GAO-23-106864 at: GAO.gov