In Case You Missed It

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) appeared last night "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" to discuss the six month anniversary of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on waste and duplication in federal programs.

"It’s not enough to consolidate one or two or three or four programs," said Chairman Kline. "We need to look at this across agencies and really pare this thing down, change the way Washington works, change the way Washington spends taxpayer money, become more efficient, become more responsive. When you have that many programs, none of them are going to work well."

The March GAO report identified overlap and fragmentation among 82 distinct teacher quality programs and 47 separate job training initiatives, representing a taxpayer investment of roughly $22 billion.

While the administration declined to discuss what they are doing to eliminate waste in federal programs and ensure better use of taxpayer money, Chairman Kline detailed the committee's efforts to advance legislation that streamlines federal spending by eliminating more than 40 duplicative and unnecessary K-12 education programs. The House of Representatives is expected to consider the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act (H.R. 1891) in the coming weeks. As Chairman Kline noted: "We are trying to simplify, clean it up, and get rid of some of this waste."

To watch the interview, click here.

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