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

Transcript for: 2020 Duplication and Cost Savings Report

Description: Jessica Lucas-Judy is with the Watchdog Report to talk
about GAO's annual report on duplication, overlap, and fragmentation in
federal programs.

Related GAO Work: GAO-20-440SP, 2020 Annual Report: Additional
Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and
Achieve Billions in Financial Benefits

Released: May 2020

[ Intro Music ]

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] Tens of billions of dollars of savings more are
possible by implementing the 467 open actions that we have.

[Matt Oldham:] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news
and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt
Oldham. GAO has a mandate to report on areas in the federal government
where billions of dollars can be saved by minimizing fragmented,
overlapping, or duplicative activities, and through cost-saving and
revenue-enhancing measures. With me to talk about this year's report is
Jessica Lucas-Judy, a strategic issues director. Thanks for joining me,
Jessica.

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] Thanks for having me, Matt.

[Matt Oldham:] So, Jessica, when we talked about this area last year,
you said we were on an unsustainable fiscal path. Does that still hold
true?

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] Yes, I wish I could say something else, but the
story is still the same. Now, obviously, the federal government has made
a pretty unprecedented financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and
that is a very high priority and it's required a large investment of
resources, but we've found that there are still ways that Congress and
executive branch agencies even while they're responding to the pandemic
can still be good stewards of those resources, tax payer dollars, and
better manage duplication, overlap, and fragmentation, and achieve some
cost savings.

[Matt Oldham:] What are some of those ways the federal government can
be, as you said, good stewards?

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] So, this is our tenth report in the series and we
identify in this report 168 new actions that can be taken across all
different parts of the government where, you know, as I said, they could
better manage fragmentation, overlap, or duplication, or achieve some
cost savings. So, for example, we found that the Department of Health
and Human Services could work better, and better coordinate with FEMA
and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to respond in a
public health emergency and better-- more effectively deliver services.
We also found that-- a way that the Office of Management and Budget
could improve its oversight of disaster relief funds and help reduce
improper payments in that area.

[Matt Oldham:] What areas have potential for large savings?

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] We have quite a number of things in our report
this year, areas for new cost savings. For example, we identified 36
actions that could help federal agencies meet their goals for
consolidating their data centers and this could potentially save
hundreds of millions of dollars. We also identified 12 different actions
that would help the Navy be more effective in its process for acquiring
and sustaining ships, and that could potentially save billions of
dollars. Another area that we identified is with Ginnie Mae, the
Government National Mortgage Association. We found that they could
reduce costs or enhance its revenues by tens of millions of dollars per
year.

[Matt Oldham:] So, it sounds like the federal government continues on an
unsustainable fiscal path, but there are areas where taxpayer dollars
could be saved, like hundreds of millions of dollars in consolidating
data centers or billions of dollars with improvements to Navy ship
building. But these aren't just new recommendations in the report,
right? What could we expect if all of GAO's recommended actions went
into effect?

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] So, I'm pleased to say that Congress and executive
branch agencies addressed or partially addressed almost 80% of the
actions that we've identified in our first nine reports, and this
resulted in about $429 billion in savings, but we think that still tens
of billions of dollars of savings more are possible by implementing the
467 open actions that we have. For example, there are steps that the
Internal Revenue Service could take to help address identity theft tax
refund fraud, and that could maybe save billions of dollars. And
improvements could be made in the Medicare program and how it makes
payments by place of service in terms of where you get service through
Medicare, and that could also have cost savings.

[Matt Oldham:] So, then last question, Jessica. What's the bottom line
of this report?

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] Even though the federal government has needed to
prioritize its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects and
that requires a lot of revenue, at the same time, our report offers
options that Congress and executive branch agencies can take now to be
good stewards of federal dollars and to help better manage
fragmentation, overlap, and duplication. Make programs more effective
and more efficient for the American people. 

[Matt Oldham:] Jessica Lucas-Judy was talking about GAO's annual report
on duplication and cost savings in the federal government. Thank you for
your time, Jessica.

[Jessica Lucas-Judy:] Thank you.

[Matt Oldham:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
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