On Tax Day, Peters & Gardner Call on Congress to Root Out Billions in Duplicative Spending & Save Tax Dollars

Press Release

Reps. Kick-Off Bipartisan Effort to Improve Oversight from GAO Report on Wasteful Spending & Implement Recommendations

As Americans across the country file their taxes today, U.S. Representatives Gary Peters and Cory Gardner launched a bipartisan effort to hold Washington accountable for wasteful spending and help save families their hard-earned tax dollars. Peters and Gardner are partnering this week responding to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showing that $95 billion taxpayer dollars are wasted on duplicative programs. They will introduce measures that would expand oversight for the GAO's cost-saving recommendations by requiring oversight hearings.

"Michigan families work too hard to watch Washington not just waste their money, but ignore common-sense ways to save it," Peters said. "Each year reports show that billions of tax dollars are misspent on duplicative programs, but Congress has failed to implement a fraction of recommended cost-saving consolidation measures. On Tax Day today, I'm glad to work with Congressman Gardner to hold Washington responsible for unnecessary spending and demand better accountability and oversight from our government. Folks in Michigan deserve to know on Tax Day and every other day that Washington is being as judicious with their tax dollars as they are with their own family's budgets."

"Today millions of Americans will file their taxes and write checks to the IRS," Gardner said. "As lawmakers, it is our duty to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money, and right now much of it is being wasted on inefficient and duplicative government programs. For the third year in a row, the GAO has released a report detailing areas where government programs can be combined or improved. Instead of letting that report gather dust, we are proposing that Congress hold hearings and vote on the suggestions in the GAO report."

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