Obama budget chief asks agencies for deep cuts

To help reign in the deficit, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag on Tuesday said federal agencies will examine under-performing aspects of their departments that no longer help the agency meet its overall goals. 

"We are asking each agency to develop a list of their bottom 5 percent performing discretionary programs, as measured by their impact in furthering the agency's mission," he said, adding, "[As] stewards of the American people's tax dollars, we cannot afford to waste money on programs that do not work, that are out-dated, or that are duplicative of one another." 

Orszag's comments are excerpted from a speech he will make later Tuesday at the Center for American Progress.

He claims there are more than 110 funded programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in 14 departments and agencies; more than 100 programs that support youth mentoring scattered across 13 agencies; and more than 40 programs located in 11 departments with responsibility for employment and training. 

"This redundancy wastes resources," he said, adding that "non-security agencies would reduce their budgets by 5 percent, which will give us the ability to achieve the overall non-security freeze even while meeting inevitable new needs and priorities."