On the recordFebruary 18, 2011
The bipartisan deficit reduction commission has looked at the work of the GAO on this issue. The GAO has tried to get Federal agencies to look at reducing their vehicle fleet. They have put out studies, and one of the interesting examples was where the GAO found automobiles in a parking lot that had not even been used for 3 years that had been purchased. Their point is this: With 650,000 vehicles that the government uses now, there is a way to put in place, if you followed the recommendations of the GAO, a way to reduce that fleet and save money. And the Government Accountability Office has said that the government agencies are badly managing their vehicles. Now, we know that with one government agency, the Department of Energy, that decided to put in place these recommendations, they reduced their fleet. In their budget going forward, they can reduce their fleet by 35 percent. What we are saying with this amendment is we are following the recommendation of the GAO. The Heritage Foundation endorses this. It certainly was supported by the bipartisan deficit reduction commission. We have got a deficit of $1.5 trillion and growing. This is a way to shut it down and a way that has been recommended to us by the GAO to move forward. We support this bipartisan amendment.
