(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today endorsed the Government Reorganization and Program Performance Improvement Act of 2005, which would create Sunset and Results Commissions to identify and eliminate ineffective federal programs.  The Bush administration transmitted the legislation to Congress yesterday.  The Sunset Commission would review the effectiveness of each federal program according to a schedule established by Congress.  Programs and agencies would automatically terminate unless Congress took specific action to continue them.  The Results Commission would work to uncover duplication of services in government programs.

“Federal programs that do not demonstrate measurable results are rarely scrutinized.  Funding them is like forcing investors to buy shares in a business that is losing money,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Sunset provisions would place the burden of proof on programs to show their merit.”

Each commission would be composed of seven members appointed by the President in consultation with certain members of Congress.  The Results Commission would terminate within nine months of its inception after making its recommendations to the President and Congress.  The Sunset Commission would work on a ten-year schedule to review the performance of, and need for, all federal agencies and programs, submitting annual assessments to the President of the agencies and programs it reviewed during the preceding year.  The President would then propose a single package of recommendations to Congress for an up-or-down vote.  Every program or agency reviewed by the Sunset Commission would automatically terminate in two years unless Congress reauthorizes the program.  Approximately one-third of the fiscal 2005 discretionary budget is unauthorized.      

Comprehensive reviews of federal spending can save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.  President Reagan’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also known as the Grace Commission, conducted the first-ever complete audit of the federal government.  Commission Chairman J. Peter Grace went on to co-found CAGW with syndicated columnist Jack Anderson; the group has helped save taxpayers $758.7 billion through the implementation of Grace Commission findings and other recommendations.

“Wasteful programs survive because they receive little attention except from the special interests that profit from them.  But the president’s proposals could help correct this bias toward bigger government by forcing members of Congress to defend their pet programs, rather than allowing them to coast under the radar with ever-fattening budgets,” Schatz concluded.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.