This piece was originally published in National Review.
Conservative House Republicans frustrated by the Biden-McCarthy debt deal recently won a symbolic victory by shutting down House floor operations. The protest revealed the ongoing struggle for power between the moderate and conservative factions of the conference.
But these attention-grabbing efforts risk distracting from more politically feasible ways of achieving significant savings. By requiring federal agencies to implement nonpartisan watchdog recommendations, Congress could save taxpayers more than $100 billion while showing the American people that the legislative branch is capable of overseeing the executive.
On Wednesday, June 14, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro testified before a Senate panel about the Government Accountability Office’s latest report on duplicative federal programs. Over the past 13 years, the congressional watchdog agency’s work on this topic has saved the federal government roughly $600 billion and counting. That includes $47 billion in new savings achieved just over the past year.
