Support the Duplication Scoring Act, H.R. 7438

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Duplication Scoring Act, H.R. 7438, introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar (R- Ariz.). This simple bill would require the analysis of certain legislation for the purpose of preventing duplication of and overlap with existing government programs. An updated version of existing legislation H.R. 4365 sponsored by former-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Rep. Gosar’s bill would provide much-needed information to Congress and to the American people before Congress passes bills that do things that already exist.

Often, we speak of the bloated and overly-expansive federal government. However, the scope of this problem is difficult to define, and it is nearly impossible to know exactly how many programs that exist inside of the federal government. It is simply common sense for Congress to know, before it passes more bills and further grows the government, whether there is already an existing program that covers the issue they wish to address. In such an instance, it makes far more sense to revise that program (or to eliminate it) than to create a new program.

In conducting the analysis required by the Duplication Scoring Act, the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would use the existing GAO Duplication and Overlap Report to determine whether and how new legislation creates duplicative or overlapping features and would publish such information as the name of the existing program and the section of the new legislation that would duplicate it on the GAO’s website.

As Rep. Gosar said of his new legislation in a Dear Colleague letter, “This new tool will not only help members of Congress and their staff but most importantly, it will help the American people determine whether certain legislation is truly necessary. Year after year, Congress passes unnecessary legislation that creates duplicative programs and offices that wind up costing taxpayers millions of dollars. With this legislation, we will be on the path of curbing government bloat and making it more efficient to Americans.”

Simply speaking, Americans deserve elected officials who take the care to ensure that what they are doing will truly make a difference in the lives of our citizens and not just make the federal government unnecessarily larger and less effective. If they do not do this, as is too often the case, then it is at least important that the American people be able to see that new legislation being considered is wholly unnecessary and be able to make their voices heard on the issue.

For these reasons, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Duplication Scoring Act, H.R. 7438.

Sincerely, Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks