Issa, Connolly, Woodall Praise Passage of Government Reports Elimination Act

WASHINGTON – Today, the House passed H.R. 4194, the Government Reports Elimination Act by unanimous voice vote. The bipartisan legislation was introduced by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and co-sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga. The bill will eliminate 79 Executive agency reports to Congress that both House Committees and the Office of Management and Budget have deemed unnecessary or duplicative.

“The Government Reports Elimination Act is a bipartisan reform that will save taxpayers money and streamline the government reports process,” Chairman Issa said. “Congress relies on accurate, timely reports to inform its spending and policy decisions, but outdated or duplicative reports are simply a waste of government resources. By eliminating the 79 reports deemed unnecessary by both the Office of Management and Budget and House Committees, we can save taxpayers an estimated $1 million a year for the next five years.”

“Passing the Government Reports Elimination Act represents precisely the type of bipartisan, good government legislating that Congress should be doing more of,” said Rep. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Government Operations Subcommittee. “In today’s challenging fiscal environment, it is incumbent that we leverage every opportunity to streamline or eliminate antiquated agency reporting requirements that are duplicative, irrelevant, or simply ignored. Enacting our bipartisan legislation will free up precious agency resources, allowing taxpayer dollars to be devoted to operations that are truly mission-critical, high priority functions.”

“Since day one, I have been focused on repealing wasteful, duplicative bureaucratic mandates, and the bill we passed today does just that,” said Rep. Woodall. “Building consensus in a divided Congress can be difficult, but this legislation further demonstrates that there are many things on which we agree and can produce common sense solutions for the American people.  I’m grateful for my colleagues’ commitment to this issue, and I look forward to continuing working with them to make our government more efficient and more effective.”

A companion bill, S. 2109, the Government Reports Elimination Act of 2014, has been introduced by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.