Taxpayer advocate compliments GAO waste report

A taxpayer advocate is advising that Washington officials look at a recently released report on government waste as they try to put the country’s books in order.

The Government Accountability Office this week unveiled 30 government areas at high-risk for waste, fraud and abuse – with the Interior Department’s oversight of oil and gas making the biennial list for the first time. 

Medicare and tax law enforcement are among the issues that GAO has tagged since 1990, while,  in congressional testimony this week, Gene Dodaro, the head of GAO, also labeled the management of federal property as another noteworthy concern. 

In a Friday release, Taxpayers for Common Sense commended Congress’ investigative agency for its high-risk report and said it “offers a great starting point to rightfully collect the public’s fair share, and reduce our trillion-dollar deficit.”

The GAO’s report came out the same week the House had a drawn-out conversation on the nation’s budget, with the chamber debating a measure that would cut $61 billion from current spending levels. On Friday, the House rejected an amendment that would have slashed an additional $22 billion in spending. 

That amendment, sponsored by more conservative parts of the House GOP conference, exempted defense and other areas from its cuts. The GAO report, meanwhile, included seven different areas related to the Pentagon.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight panel, agreed to try to work together on government waste at a hearing of Issa’s committee this week. McCaskill was invited to to testify by the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).