Senator Lankford Releases "Federal Fumbles" Gov't Waste Report

Press Release

Senator James Lankford today released his second annual government waste and solutions report called, "Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball." The report represents $247 billion in wasteful and inefficient federal spending and regulations, but also includes solutions to each of the examples of government waste.

"The American people have signaled a bold new direction for Washington with the election of President-elect Donald Trump," said Lankford. "Although the federal debt wasn't a major focus during the presidential campaign, it remains a serious impending crisis that must be addressed. In Fiscal Year 2016 alone, we had a $587 billion deficit and our federal debt is now an outrageous $19.5 trillion. To lower the debt, we need to grow the economy, and we must root out inefficiencies, duplication, and wasteful spending wherever they exist. This "Federal Fumbles' report provides specific examples of wasteful spending and unnecessary regulations that are not in the taxpayer's best interest."

Lankford released the report during a press conference in Washington, DC this morning.

Senator Lankford Excerpts from Press Conference:

"This is the way the federal government has dropped the ball, and what we are trying to focus in on, is not trying to pick on one particular agency or entity, but to say we have got to be able to pay attention. We are really dealing with four different main areas as we walk through this; grants that need oversight, regulations and regulators that need oversight, agency bureaucracy and inefficiency, and then a lack of coordination between agencies.

"We are not just trying to raise the problem; we are also trying to raise how you solve it. Whether it is an administration action, whether it is a piece of legislation, whether it is just coordination between the two, or some of those things that have already happened, but we haven't engaged in it enough to provide the oversight needed to actually get the coordination. Every single one of these identify here is the problem, here is the issue, and here is how to solve it.

"This is not a comprehensive book; this is not trying to list everything in the federal government where there is an issue. We are trying to find some key areas that we can identify, and say here are some problems we have seen, and some things that we find as common ground solutions. This builds on last year's book.

"We have got duplication issues. We have got problems that are around federal foreign aid, which has been an ongoing issue that we have made recommendations on. When we deal with foreign aid, we should simply deal with foreign aid that is to the benefit of the United States. We don't think that is an unreasonable request. Instead, at times, we deal with foreign aid, like studying fish bones in Tanzania."

To do his part to help reduce federal spending in Congress' own operational budget, Lankford has operated his Senatorial office budget far below the allotted amount for each Senator. Since he was elected to the US Senate in 2014, Lankford has given back $230,000 to the Treasury each year.

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