SENATE APPROVES DORGAN AMENDMENT TO FORCE FEDERAL AGENCIES TO DISCLOSE THEIR OVERHEAD COSTS

Thursday, July 30, 2009

CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or  Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The U.S. Senate has approved an amendment by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) that will require federal agencies to disclose their overhead and administrative costs when submitting their budget requests to Congress. Dorgan said the provision is an important step in his effort to get federal agencies to tighten their belts and cut administrative costs during tough economic times.

Federal agencies were first instructed to disclose and reduce their overhead and administrative expenses in 1993 by an executive order by President Clinton, as part of an effort to streamline government and eliminate waste. However, federal agencies refused to comply with that executive order, claiming that it was impossible to separately identify such expenses. In April, Dorgan and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced S. 948, the Agency Administrative Expenses Reduction Act of 2009, to require by statute that federal agencies disclose their overhead and administrative expenses, and to make significant cuts to them.

“The first step in getting federal agencies to reduce their administrative overhead is to have the agencies identify and report those expenses, and that’s precisely what this amendment will accomplish,” Dorgan said.

Each year, federal agencies must submit their funding requests to Congress. Under this legislation, agencies would be required to list how much funding they are requesting for administrative overhead purposes.

“In the current recession, American families and businesses are having to tighten their belts, and federal agencies should do no less,” said Dorgan. “The logical place to start trimming waste is in administrative overhead, but until now federal agencies have refused to even report those expenses. That will change when my amendment is signed into law.”

Senator Dorgan has a track record of fighting unnecessary government spending. He has held 19 hearings on wasteful spending in Iraq contracting, and obtained billions of dollars in cuts for Iraq reconstruction that the Iraqis could finance themselves. He has also exposed such wasteful agency spending as boondoggles by federal employees to resort hotels, a Tony Robbins motivational seminar, and multi-million dollar awards banquets. Most recently, Dorgan put an end to Bureau of Public Debt plans to hire a cartoonist to conduct workplace humor seminars for their staff.

—END—