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Congress Working to Renew Federal Agency Improvement Panel
OMB Watch ^ | September 20, 2007 | Matt Madia

Posted on 09/20/2007 9:35:10 PM PDT by anymouse

Yesterday, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously on a bill (H.R. 3564) which would reauthorize the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) through FY 2011. Congress initially formed ACUS in the 1960's, but vanquished it in the mid 1990's as part of Newt Gingrich's effort to reduce government. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-UT) and Linda Sanchez (D-CA) are pushing the bill.

ACUS is a panel of administrative law experts. (Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer have both served at ACUS.) ACUS studies the federal rulemaking process and other operations of federal agencies. The panel takes long-term views and makes recommendations on improved performance.

Improvements identified by ACUS can allow agencies to be more responsive to public need and can save taxpayers money through increased efficiency. According to the National Journal (subscription), "Sanchez said the bill was 'an extremely nominal investment [that] will unquestionably rebound in billions [of dollars] in savings in taxpayer dollars.' "

Technically, ACUS already exists. 2004 legislation reauthorized the panel. Unfortunately, since then, Congress has not funded it, making it impossible for ACUS to have employees, office space, pens, binder clips, etc...

Sanchez and Cannon hope to get ACUS up and running in a hurry. They will attempt to add a $1 million start-up appropriation to the FY 2008 (which begins Oct. 1) Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. That bill has already passed the House, but not the Senate. Sanchez says she hopes to add the minor provision when the two chambers form a conference to reconcile the two bills, according to BNA news service (subscription).

The full Judiciary Committee will consider the bill in the near future. No word yet on a Senate version.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: acus; chriscannon; congress; lindasanchez
Interesting.
1 posted on 09/20/2007 9:35:12 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: Shuttle Shucker

ping


2 posted on 09/20/2007 9:35:35 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: anymouse

“ACUS studies the federal rulemaking process and other operations of federal agencies. The panel takes long-term views and makes recommendations on improved performance.

Improvements identified by ACUS can allow agencies to be more responsive to public need and can save taxpayers money through increased efficiency. According to the National Journal (subscription), “Sanchez said the bill was ‘an extremely nominal investment [that] will unquestionably rebound in billions [of dollars] in savings in taxpayer dollars.’ “”


What was the “rebound in savings” during its earlier existence? This sounds to me like just another resume padding board that elected officials can point to when their further wasting of our money gets any sort of public scrutiny.

Save the million bucks. Just say no.


3 posted on 09/20/2007 9:55:05 PM PDT by hotshu
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To: hotshu

Save billions more and shut down 90% of FedGov. That would ALSO save more trillions in phoney-baloney regulation and other hidden costs of government...


4 posted on 09/20/2007 11:00:29 PM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: dcwusmc

Only 90%? You give way too much credit to the value of most government agencies. The problem is that we have gone over the edge of socialism and too many people think that they need a big government to give them services, subsidies or outright cash. Government dependency is a hard habit to kick.


5 posted on 09/20/2007 11:29:43 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: anymouse

We need more lawyers, ones recommended by Loretta; the one that can’t make up what her name is?


6 posted on 09/21/2007 1:18:02 AM PDT by freekitty (May the eagles long fly over our beautiful and free American sky.)
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To: anymouse
We need to eliminate all of these unnecessary panels, committees, etc. We also need to eliminate people in government; departments and place those we keep around the country so the power will not be so concentrated.

Btw, we are having a big problem in our neighborhood with the post office. It seems, even though we have complained; that they are only delivering junk mail to us; and not our regular mail. Anyone else having this problem?

Also. is this a federal offense?

7 posted on 09/21/2007 1:22:50 AM PDT by freekitty (May the eagles long fly over our beautiful and free American sky.)
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