Eliminating Federal Waste?

Trump Executive Order Requires ‘Thorough’ Review of Federal Agencies

On 13 March 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies within the executive branch of the federal government to submit plans for their reorganization:

Section 1.  Purpose. This order is intended to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the executive branch by directing the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Director) to propose a plan to reorganize governmental functions and eliminate unnecessary agencies (as defined in section 551(1) of title 5, United States Code), components of agencies, and agency programs.

Sec. 2.  Proposed Plan to Improve the Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Accountability of Federal Agencies, Including, as Appropriate, to Eliminate or Reorganize Unnecessary or Redundant Federal Agencies.  (a)  Within 180 days of the date of this order, the head of each agency shall submit to the Director a proposed plan to reorganize the agency, if appropriate, in order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of that agency. 

Trump said at a ceremony accompanying the signing that the order was designed to identify where money was being wasted at the federal level through a “thorough examination.” He also said:

We have assembled one of the greatest Cabinets in history and I believe that so strongly. And we want to empower them to make their agencies as lean as effective as possible, and they know how to do it. Today there’s duplication and redundancy everywhere. Billions and billions of dollars are being wasted on activities that are not delivering results for hardworking American taxpayers. And not even coming close.

According to the order, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will oversee the process. Each agency has six months to submit a proposed plan to “reorganize the agency, if appropriate, in order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of that agency” to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney would then publish a notice in the Federal Register “inviting the public to suggest improvements in the organization and functioning of the executive branch.”

Six months after the closing date for that posting, the order said, Mulvaney would be required to submit a proposed reorganization plan to Trump.

The proposed plan shall include, as appropriate, recommendations to eliminate unnecessary agencies, components of agencies, and agency programs, and to merge functions. The proposed plan shall include recommendations for any legislation or administrative measures necessary to achieve the proposed reorganization.

The National Register currently lists 440 agencies. Under the terms of the order, Mulvaney must evaluate whether any given agency’s function would be better left “to State or local governments or to the private sector through free enterprise.”

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A monumental Executive Order was signed this afternoon by Pres. Trump for the reported purpose of identifying where money was being wasted at the federal level through a thorough examination by his appointed Cabinet members.

It would be my suggestion that if Pres. Trump was genuinely concerned with eliminating waste of federal monies, that he should be the first person to tighten his belt. He should make a public declaration promising to cut Presidential expenses. He could start his new budgetary diet by no longer visiting his Mar-a-lago estate every weekend. It would save taxpayers approximately $3,000,000 every weekend, if he stayed at the White House. It seems like suspiciously incongruent behavior for Pres. Trump to suddenly be so concerned about wasting taxpayers money, that he would suddenly enact stringent measures to ensure government thriftiness. Why would he jump to sign this new Executive Order, prior to any previously well-discussed research about safe budget reductions? It appears to be a superficial and hypocritical exercise that leaves me suspicious of a hidden agenda.

Then there's that other little matter of building a wall that purportedly will cost billions to erect and billions to enforce with new federal employees. Do we really need a literal 1950's iron curtain? Or are we just blowing a ton more money for feel-good propaganda to appease the masses?

Oh yeah, I have one last suggestion to eliminate waste in the government--permanently cut off Trump's Twitter account.


                                                              "Good Night!"