On Tuesday, November 25, the President signed the Government Reports Elimination Act (H.R. 4194), a bipartisan initiative to eliminate or modify more than 50 unnecessary, outdated, or duplicative federal reports required of more than a dozen federal agencies. The Government Reports Elimination Act is the House version of Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) companion legislation, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent on September 16. Among the reports to be eliminated under the legislation: a Department of Homeland Security annual report on illegal imports of products made with dog or cat fur, and a Department of Agriculture report on the number of acres of peanuts planted each year.  

Additionally, Senators Warner and Ayotte introduced the Reports Reduction Act of 2014 on November 13, to further their bipartisan efforts to increase government performance by removing government waste and inefficiency. This legislation would eliminate or modify an additional 67 unnecessary reports.

“I’m very pleased the President has signed this important step towards increasing efficiency in the federal government,” Senator Warner said. “There is no reason that hundreds of federal employees should spend countless hours producing outdated and often useless reports. Getting rid of these 50 unnecessary reports is a simple but effective step, but we can and should go even further. Sen. Ayotte and I have introduced additional legislation to take aim at 67 more unnecessary federal reports produced each year. We need to continue to find smart ways to create a more efficient government to ensure our taxpayers dollars are being spent productively.”

Sen. Warner serves as Chairman of the Budget Committee’s bipartisan Government Performance Task Force, and Sen. Ayotte serves as the Ranking Republican Member. The Task Force was established in 2009 to examine how the government measures the cost-effectiveness of federal programs with a goal of saving taxpayer dollars. Sen. Warner was a lead sponsor of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, which required federal agencies to identify outdated or duplicative congressionally mandated reports that could be consolidated or eliminated to direct agency resources towards more productive activities. In addition, Sen. Warner was lead sponsor of the bipartisan Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which standardizes federal spending data and ensures it is made available online so taxpayers can access information about how their tax dollars are being spent.