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Responding to the GSA Fiasco

By: Rep. John Fleming (Diary)  |  April 20th, 2012 at 01:10 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Promoted from the diaries….

It’s time for wholesale change. The agency that’s supposed to make sure the federal government minimizes costs and runs efficiently is at the center of a fraud and waste scandal. When the General Services Administration burns taxpayers for $822,000 for what amounted to a Las Vegas party, the answer has to be more than outrage. What happened at the GSA is symptomatic of a culture of corruption and government waste in Washington. The problem is massive and costly, and demands a serious response.

Last year I introduced a bill called the Federal Realignment and Closure Commission Act (H.R. 2680). The FRACC Act would begin a fundamental reformation of the federal government by creating a commission to evaluate every federal program, department, and agency to identify which ones are actually functioning efficiently, and which ones are duplicative, outdated, wasteful, or irrelevant. It’s patterned after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the Defense Department has used to reorganize its base structure. What is even more unique about the FRACC act is that once the President grants approval to the Commission’s recommendations, the plan takes effect automatically unless Congress acts to disapprove of the plan in its entirety.

The FRACC Act has the potential to put an end to ridiculous and wasteful spending, save billions of dollars to bring down the deficit, and claw back the scope of a government that has grown far beyond its Constitutional boundaries. Imagine a Federal government which must prove that its rules and agencies are actually serving the American people purposefully, efficiently and constitutionally. It can happen, but it will take a majority in the Senate and a president in the White House who believe these are worthwhile goals.

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Congressman John Fleming, M.D., represents Louisiana’s 4th District. He is Co-Chair of the Congressional Values Action Team, Chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs, and is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He is a physician and small business owner.

COMMENTS

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  • macbookben

    is a nice little non-profit for such purposes. And they have an established presence in DC.

    • reggie1

      Govt agencies are tasked with neither real world objective of improving revenue or cutting expenses. That goes for the GSA too- their job is imposing regs, and they only assume those regs lead to less expense. Anyway, they (govt agencies) will naturally grow and bloat, unless cut from the outside.

      • montani

        “Last year I introduced a bill called the Federal Realignment and Closure Commission Act (H.R. 2680).”

        So?

        I have a suggestion. How about you guys cut the GSA’s budget in half? How about you refuse to pass any legislation that does otherwise? How about if Obama threatens to make you look bad by shutting down the government, you stick to your guns and refuse anyway.

        I am so tired of the issue parasites attaching themselves to whatever it is that gets people fired up instead of doing the business we elected them to do.

        • checkmate2012

          Once again he’s proved that he has no respect for seperate and EQUAL branches of government. He must go! But I do agree with stick with the program and at least Rep. Fleming is trying…see post below. The system in Congress is broken when only the leaders get to decide what is put on the floor for a vote, regardless of the voters.

          • montani

            No one cares what bills they want to introduce. Even if their bills even see the daylight under the door of the Senate, Obama will veto them and our representatives will come home and say ?I tried?. I for one am tired of their failure. No more finger pointing. I want results and a determination to get them.

          • checkmate2012

            only have 1/2 of one branch. I want change too and think it sucks that two obstuctionist leaders of Congress can control the entire agenda regardless of what the people want to vote on. More conservatives is the only answer and more pit-bullying by a member that intends to get something passed.

          • montani

            Sorry but to stop spending, one faction needs only one branch.

            That was the purpose of instituting a system of checks and balances. By giving each branch the ability to stop anything, our founders intended to protect the American people from their government.

            I’m not sure how this excuse of only having “1/2 of a branch” got started but it’s become the mark of a political argument rather than a conservative argument.

          • johnt

            we’ll never see it. The civil service employment numbers have ballooned since Baby O began desecrating the White House with his presence. More powerful now than ever, but without the ability to fire slugs, parasites, and various lard ass paper shufflers, abuse will be continual.
            The GSA thing is only a hint of what goes on. Imagine how they “negotiate” contracts ? Then extrapolate to all the other agencies, the mind cannot construct a sufficient nightmare.

  • renny

    and some divisions and bureaucracies are supposed to be so bad in DC that even the GAO cannot audit them because the record keeping is so lax and responsibilities are so loose no one can tell how much such an entity spends or produced of anything. THEY SHOULD BE ELIMINATED, regardless of size or “importance.” If a polity cannot live within a budget and maintain bookkeeping and data, the it does not deserved to be funded at all.

  • checkmate2012

    There is so much talk of reducing government spending but rarely does any bill of true substance get passed to accomplish your goal; I do commend you for trying and your three fellow sponsors last July.

    Maybe, just maybe it might make it to the Senate floor given the bi-partisian outrage that we saw during the hearings this week. If you can get it passed in the House, I would dare the Senate not to put it to a vote.

    GSA as the keeper of the contracts and payments and should be put to shame with their latest scandal and maybe it’s time to eliminate GSA and decentralize that responsibility to the respective departments that have closer oversight.

    Taxpayers can only imagine that this is a rampant problem throughout all agencies and it will never be tackled until the size and scope of government is reduced to their enumerated powers.

    Please push for a vote for the sake of this great country and congratulations for winning a Republican seat in the deepest of blue states, the great state of Maryland.

  • babyscatz

    I wish one of the right-leaning Super Pacs would take an opportunity to hit while the fire is hot regarding this GSA debacle. A TV ad showing the excesses of the GSA party mentality, perhaps even a bit of the energy department’s misadventures in “investing” in green energies suggesting that before Obama and the democrats ask American taxpayers (wealthy or not) to pay one more cent in higher taxes, that a complete audit of the federal government take place by an independent source to clean up this bloated behemoth. Run it now when the headlines are fresh and reintroduce it later on in the campaign.

  • Warrior

    of any description talk of cutting gubmint. I cringe when I see a conservative running on a platform of “creating jobs.” It is not the purpose of gubmint to “create jobs” and conservatives of all people should know that.

    It is the gubmin’ts purpose to create an environment that is conducive to a capitalist market economy: enforce contracts, enforce the rule of law, guard the borders and the country, keep taxes and regulations low and GET THE HEII out of the way.

    I long to hear a politician run on how many gubmint agencies he or she is going to dismantle; how many federal bureaucracies he or she is going to defund; how many laws he or she is going to rescind; how many Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges he or she is planning to impeach for overstepping their bounds; how many taxes and fees he or she is planning to eliminate; how many presidential cabinets will be eliminated; how many pages of federal regulations, tax and otherwise, he or she is planning to dispense with; how many terms in Congress is too many; etc, etc, etc.

    THEN and ONLY THEN will I know our country is heading in the right direction.

    Otherwise, the Federal Leviathan and its state and local spawn will destroy us ALL.

  • Viet71

    n/t

  • acat

    A very good idea, Rep. Fleming, one I hope can see daylight in 2012.

    Mew

  • YnotNOW

    The BRAC commission has been extremely successful at countering local political obstructionism, in favor of the larger national interest. Basing FRACC on that outline is an excellent plan.

    But I take issue with the “even more unique about the FRACC act is that once the President grants approval to the Commission?s recommendations, the plan takes effect automatically unless Congress acts to disapprove of the plan in its entirety”

    Congress has the power of the purse, and should not abdicate to the Pres. The whole-package take-it-or-leave-it option should be sufficient to balance local protectionism with the larger picture.

  • ohiohistorian

    Congress is supposed to provide OVERSIGHT of the spending of the United States. In my mind, that means that every dime should be linked somehow to a committee in Congress reviewing how that agency has spent those dollars. Instead, Congress seems to be there to make National Holocaust Day, and National Golf Day (April 19 and 18 respectively).

    If you cannot review if it is being spent properly, then hire a commercial auditor. For pity sakes, don’t set up another Federal Oversight Whatever. Ronald Reagan himself said that the closest thing to eternal life is a government program.

  • dajeeps

    Why would we be interested in delegating even more? That is the basic problem that threatens the survival of the republic, aside from the constitutional issues, because legislative power ends up vested in the hands of people who are unelected and apparently unaccountable. The entire bureaucracy has taken on a life of its own and has, for most practical purposes rendered congress obsolete. No, I think it’s much better for all congressional representatives to do their constitutional duty and uphold their oaths or we aren’t long to be a free republic, if we even still are.

  • usadying

    We are stuck with endless committees, commissions, and laws that are useless. My solution is to send everyone, including the President, home for 11 months of the year. Then get the auditor in. Unfortunately, DC will find a way to politicize the process. There is a new ad by the Postal Workers Union asking for more money and to trust them to do the right thing. HAHA. We can’t even trim the Post Office budget, so who can trust Congress to clean up anything else?