Tim Walberg: “I thank the chairman for his leadership on this. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Taxpayers Right-To-Know…”

“I thank the chairman for his leadership on this. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act. This bill is a bipartisan and bicameral effort to provide more information about Federal programs and their activities online. The American people deserve to know what their government does with their hard-earned dollars. The Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act will make it easier to evaluate Federal Government spending by requiring Federal agencies to identify their programs, provide basic information like what their programs do, how they perform, and how much they cost. Agencies must do a better job of managing their programs and identifying areas where taxpayer dollars are wasted. The Government Accountability Office is tasked with reporting on duplication and continues to find new areas of duplication across the government. In 6 years, GAO has identified 250 areas and 637 corrective actions in those areas to reduce fragmentation, overlap, or duplication or address other opportunities for financial benefits. While only 41 percent of recommended corrective actions have been taken, GAO estimates this progress will result in approximately $125 billion in financial benefits and savings over 15 years. While GAO's work has been invaluable, their ability to look comprehensively at the Federal Government is inherently limited because of the poor reporting by agencies about their activity. Quite simply, Mr.…”