From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Comptroller General Testifies to U.S. Senate on GAO's 
2018 Duplication Report 

Description: In his May 23, 2018, testimony to the U.S. Senate, 
Comptroller General Gene Dodaro discusses GAO's 2018 Duplication and 
Cost Savings Report.

Related GAO Works: 
GAO-18-571T: Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Opportunities to 
Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other 
Financial Benefits
and
GAO-18-371SP: 2017 2018 Annual Report: Additional Opportunities to 
Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other 
Financial Benefits

Released: May 2018


[First Screen]
United States Senate Committeee on the Budget

[Second Screen]
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: 
Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and 
Achieve Other Financial Benefits

[Third Screen]
Comptroller General
Gene Dodaro's
Opening Statement
May 23, 2018


>> Comptroller General, please begin.

>> [ U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro: ] Thank you very much, Mr. 
Chairman. Good morning to you, Ranking Member Senator Sanders, good to 
see both of you again. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to 
discuss our eighth annual report on this topic of overlap, 
fragmentation, and duplication in the federal government. We also add 
our ideas for cost savings and revenue enhancements, which we think 
Congress should consider as well. 

In the first seven years on this effort, we identified 724 
recommendations in this area. So far, as of march, 52 percent were 
fully implemented, 24 percent were partially implemented. And as a 
result of the actions by congress and by the executive branch, 
financial benefits have either occurred or will accrue of $178 billion. 
And I believe much more savings could be realized by addressing our 
open recommendations yet. 

This year, we identified 68 new recommendations for congressional 
consideration, in addition to the 724 we already identified. For 
example, the Department of Defense could save over $500 million over 
five years by eliminating unnecessary overlap and duplication among 
U.S. distribution centers that provide goods to service members. 

The Department of Energy could reduce risk and save potentially tens of 
billions of dollars by testing and using alternative treatment 
processes for nuclear waste at the Hanford site in Washington. The 
Department of Veterans Affairs could save tens of millions of dollars 
in purchasing medical supplies and surgical supplies by using best 
practices that private sector hospitals use in that area.

And also, the Coast Guard could save millions of dollars by closing 
unnecessary overlap and duplication in their search and rescue 
stations. They've already identified ways that they can do that. So 
there are many opportunities yet to provide savings. We have 365 open 
recommendations of where savings could be still yet realized. 

And many of this, I would point out, are in both the Defense 
Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Chairman, 
which you identified in your opening statements, and one of the reasons 
there are so many recommendations open in those two areas is that's 
where the money is. 

Medicare and Medicaid and other programs are over a trillion dollars a 
year right now. And we have a number of recommendations that we think 
could save tens of billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid 
expenditures and also the defense department. We think there's also 
opportunities for IRS to take actions that could result in additional 
revenue collections that should be implemented as well. 

So I appreciate very much you holding this hearing. And providing a 
platform for discussing these issues, which are very important, and I 
look forward to responding to your questions. 

Thank you.

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