A House lawmaker has introduced legislation aiming to eliminate duplication present in existent programs and prevent future laws and procedures from duplicating, Federal News Radio reports.
Rep. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) bill would require the Congressional Research Service to score each piece of legislation for duplication, similar to a measure the Congressional Budget Office uses to score costs.
Lankford said the House currently lacks a program that keeps track of programs, which often leads to lawmakers moving bills through that are similar to programs that already exist.
He believes the issue of duplicative legislation would be resolved by involving the CRS in the final stages of the process to ensure a proposed bill or program does not already exist in another agency or format.
A second bill Lankford is sponsoring directs agencies to keep a list of all of their programs.
The Taxpayers Right to Know Act would require agencies and their sub-departments to list programs, costs and how the agency measures the program’s effectiveness.
The bill aims to bring together information already included in congressional authorizations passed each year so that the Office of Management and Budget, Congress or any other group can pull up the consolidated stock program list to reference.
Agencies do not typically complete this program listing process but Lankford said the Education Department is an exception since it regularly and clearly identifies programs, costs, metrics and evaluation processes.
Lankford said he hopes to bring the legislation to the House floor in the coming weeks.
