The Federal Government Doesn’t Know How Many Programs They Run

Conservative News DailyJanuary 27, 2023

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By Brett Rowland (The Center Square).

The federal government spends trillions of dollars a year on programs, but it doesn’t have an inventory of all federal programs despite a 2011 law that says they must be tracked.

Part of the problem is government agencies don’t agree on what constitutes a federal program, according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

“This lack of a common definition – or at least a way to collect and present comparable information for programs that are defined differently – has hindered past efforts to develop an inventory,” According to the report.

A 2011 law The Office of Management and Budget is required to maintain an inventory of all federal programs on a publicly accessible website.

According to the GAO report, having financial and inventory information about federal programs would allow for the identification of fragmentation, overlap, and duplication, as well as a better understanding how the government works.

Twelve recommendations were made by the GAO to the Office of Management and Budget since 2014. “effectively plan for and create a program inventory that provides complete, comparable and useful information.”

In November 2021, the Office of Management and Budget published a plan for program inventory implementation. According to the report, this plan includes a number of pilot programs and will be fully implemented by 2025 as required by law.

“Given the size and scope of the federal government, developing a complete inventory of federal programs is a complex undertaking,” The report states that

In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent $6.27 trillion and collected $4.90 trillion in revenue, resulting in $1.38 trillion deficit, according to the U.S. Treasury.

Syndicated with permission of The Center Square