By Brett Rowland (The Center Square)
The federal government spends trillions of dollars a year on programs, but not all federal programs have an inventory, despite a 2011 law that says they must be tracked.
Part of the problem, according to a new US Government Accountability Office report, is that government agencies don’t agree on how to structure the federal program.
RELATED: New earmarks in omnibus spending bill cost $16 billion
“This lack of a common definition — or at least a way to collect and present comparable information for differently defined programs — has hampered previous efforts to develop inventories.” Report.
A 2011 Act The Office of Management and Budget is required to have an inventory of all federal programs available on a public website.
According to the GAO report, having inventory and financial information on a federal program can help identify fragmentation, overlap and duplication, in addition to providing a better understanding of how government works.
GAO has made 12 recommendations since 2014 to the Office of Management and Budget to “effectively plan and create program inventories that provide complete, comparable, and useful information.”
Support conservative voices!
Sign up to receive the latest Political news, insight and commentary delivered straight to your inbox.
Related: CBO projects Social Security funds will run out without changes by 2033
The Office of Management and Budget published the program’s inventory implementation plan in November 2021. That plan, which includes a series of pilot programs, will lead to full implementation by law in 2025, the report said.
“Given the size and scope of the federal government, developing a complete inventory of federal programs is a complex task,” according to the report.
In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent $6.27 trillion and collected $4.90 trillion in revenue, resulting in a $1.38 trillion deficit. US Treasury.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
