In the 109th Congress, for the third consecutive Congress, companion bills have beenintroduced ( S. 1155 / H.R. 2470 ) that, if enacted, would establish aCommission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies (CARFA). (1) As discussed later in thisreport, these two bills differ from one another in some key respects, including the procedure forappointing commission members, the agencies that would be within the proposed commission'sscope, and requirements for use of "funds saved" as a result of the commission's plan andrecommendations. (2) Nonetheless, if either version of the legislation is enacted, the proposed CARFA Act would requirethis "review commission," made up of 12 members, to review certain federal agencies and programsto determine if any covered agencies or programs are duplicative , wasteful , inefficient , outdated , irrelevant , or failed . The proposed CARFA would be required (or in some cases in the Senateversion, allowed instead of required) to recommend that any such programs and agencies berealigned or eliminated. The commission's recommendations would then be packaged into animplementation bill that would receive expedited congressional consideration, including prohibitionson amendments and restrictions on procedural delays. Provisions nearly identical to the House and Senate bills also appeared in a budget processreform bill ( H.R. 2290 , Subtitle III.C., providing for the establishment of a Commissionto Eliminate Waste, Fraud, and Abuse) and a bill to offset costs of Hurricane Katrina and HurricaneRita ( S. 1928 , Title III, providing for a CARFA). Nonbinding provisions in the FY2006budget resolution ( H.Con.Res. 95 ) also called for establishing a CARFA-likecommission. Finally, President George W. Bush said in his FY2006 budget submission that hewould put forward, as part of his President's Management Agenda (PMA), legislation authorizinghim to propose "results commissions." These commissions would consider and revise Administrationproposals to restructure and consolidate programs and agencies. (3) Before the legislation'srelease, an Administration official from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) suggestedthat the results commissions would be similar to the previously proposed CARFA. Proposalsapproved by such a results commission and the President would be considered by Congress underexpedited procedures. Subsequently, the Bush Administration released a legislative proposal forresults commissions and a sunset commission. Bills were later introduced ( H.R. 3276 / S. 1399 ) that substantially incorporated the Administration's draft language thatwould allow the establishment of results commissions. This report analyzes several issues related to the CARFA legislation. The CARFA proposal'sprovisions for expedited congressional consideration have been compared by its proponents to thoseof the legislation that established the Base Closure and Realignment (usually known as "BRAC")commissions. The BRAC commissions have made recommendations to realign and close manymilitary installations in the last 15 years. However, the CARFA proposal also has significantdifferences from the BRAC framework, as discussed later in this report. In addition, OMB hastestified to Congress that, if Congress established CARFA, the commission should use the BushAdministration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to evaluate programs. (4) This report also brieflydiscusses the results commissions proposal, which appears similar in some respects to presidentialreorganization authority, which lapsed in 1984 and has not been renewed by Congress. (5) The results commissionsproposal also appears similar in some respects to provisions that established BRAC commissions. Like BRAC, the results commissions proposal would provide for multi-stage review ofreorganization plans (i.e., by the commission, the President, and Congress) and expeditedcongressional consideration. The first section of this report summarizes the CARFA legislation's history in the 108th and109th Congresses and its provisions in the 109th Congress. The second section briefly discussesother review commission legislation in the 108th and 109th Congresses. The third section highlightsperspectives that surfaced in the 108th Congress regarding some perceived advantages anddisadvantages of the proposal. The report's fourth section then analyzes several issues that may beof interest in the 109th Congress in the event that the CARFA legislation or similar proposals toestablish a review commission are further considered. In order of presentation, these issues include: the commission's membership; the scope of the commission's review andrecommendations; definitions of key terms; standards and criteria for decision making; expedited congressional consideration; and transparency and participation. Following that discussion, the report discusses potential success factors for commissions and, shouldCongress opt to consider them, potential alternatives or complements to a review commission. These alternatives or complements include pursuing or reauthorizing government reorganization,using the Government Performance and Results Act, and bolstering agency program evaluationcapacity by establishing "chief program evaluation officers." Recent legislative history concerning the proposed CARFA legislation is discussed below,from both the 108th and 109th Congresses. The different types of measures within each Congress(stand-alone bills, budget process reform bills, budget resolutions, and the Bush Administration'sresults commissions proposal) are discussed in chronological order of introduction. 108th Congress. Stand-Alone Bills. On September 26, 2003, SenatorSam Brownback introduced legislation (Commission on the Accountability and Review of FederalAgencies Act, S. 1668 , 108th Congress) to establish a commission to "conduct acomprehensive review of Federal agencies and programs and to recommend the elimination orrealignment of duplicative, wasteful, or outdated functions, and for other purposes" (bill title). Thebill was referred to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, and on September 29, 2003, wasfurther referred to the committee's Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, theFederal Workforce, and the District of Columbia. The subcommittee held a hearing on S.1668 on May 6, 2004. (6) However, the bill did not receive further action. A companion House bill, H.R. 3213 , was introduced by Representative ToddTiahrt on October 1, 2003, and was referred jointly to the House Committees on GovernmentReform and Rules, but did not receive further action. (7) Under both the House and Senate bills, the proposed CARFA,made up of 12 members all appointed by the President, would have been required to reviewnon-defense, non-entitlement federal agencies and programs -- accounting for approximatelyone-fifth of the federal budget. (8) Both bills would have required "funds saved" by theimplementation of the commission's plan and recommendations to be used to "support otherdomestic programs" or "pay down the national debt." Budget Process Reform Bills. Nearly identicalprovisions appeared in several budget process reform bills (108th Congress, H.R. 3800 / S. 2752 , H.R. 3925 , and in floor amendments to H.R. 4663 ). These provisions, however, would have established a commission to review all federalexecutive agencies and programs (although H.R. 3925 did not provide for expeditedcongressional consideration) without requirements regarding the used of funds saved. (9) Budget Resolutions. In addition, the CARFAproposal was cited in the context of congressional budget resolutions in both the first and secondsessions of the 108th Congress. In the FY2004 budget resolution (108th Congress, H.Con.Res. 95 , Section 606), which was agreed to by the House and Senate, nonbindingsense of the Senate provisions called for the establishment of a commission ... to review Federal domestic agencies, and programswithin such agencies, with the express purpose of providing Congress with recommendations, andlegislation to implement those recommendations, to realign or eliminate government agencies andprograms that are duplicative, wasteful, inefficient, outdated, or irrelevant, or have failed toaccomplish their intended purpose. (10) In remarks during Senate consideration of the resolution, Senator Brownback stated that thislanguage referred to his CARFA proposal. (11) In the FY2005 budget resolution, nonbinding sense of the Senate provisions in theSenate-passed version (108th Congress, S.Con.Res. 95 , Section 502) and in theHouse-passed conference report to the FY2005 budget resolution ( H.Rept. 108-498 , Section 602)called for enactment of the CARFA legislation. (12) The CARFA-related provisions stated, among other things, ... that legislation should be enacted that would createa bipartisan commission for the purpose of -- (1) submitting recommendations on ways to eliminatewaste, fraud, and abuse; and (2) ... provid[ing] recommendations on ways in which to achieve costsavings through enhancing program efficiencies in all [domestic] discretionary and entitlementprograms. These provisions further called for the commission to "realign or eliminate government agencies andprograms that are duplicative, inefficient, outdated, irrelevant, or have failed to accomplish theirintended purpose." 109th Congress. Budget Resolution. For the third consecutive year,the CARFA proposal was cited in the context of congressional consideration of the budgetresolution, in this case, for FY2006. (13) The Senate-passed version of the budget resolution, S.Con.Res. 18 , was agreed to on March 17, 2005, by a vote of 51-49. Section 502 ofthe measure contained a sense of the Senate provision very similar to the language that was includedin the FY2004 budget resolution, albeit with changed word ordering and deletion of the word"domestic" when specifying the agencies that would be subject to such a review.