releases: https://walker.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-sends-walkers-gao-ig-act-stop-wasteful-spending-federal-agencies
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://walker.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-sends-walkers-gao-ig-act-stop-wasteful-spending-federal-agencies | House Sends Walker's GAO-IG Act to Stop Wasteful Spending in Federal Agencies and Bring Needed Accountability to the President | 2018-12-21 | 2018 | 2018-12 | Republican | House | NC | Mark Walker | W000819 | walker.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON, D.C.U.S. RepresentativeMarkWalker (R-N.C.) today released the following statement after the House passed the Senate-revised version of his legislation, H.R. 5415, the Good Accounting Obligation in Government (GAO-IG) Act with unanimous bipartisan support: I am proud to lead this successful effort with Senator Todd Young, sending legislation to the President's desk that fights the Washington status quo and holds federal bureaucrats accountable to the people of North Carolina. It's unacceptable that federal agencies ignore thousands of recommendations on how to become more efficient and save taxpayer dollars. The GAO-IG Act will improve government, while bringing needed accountability and saving hardworking Americans as much as $87 billion. The GAO-IG Act would save taxpayer money and bring needed accountability to federal agencies by requiring them to report on the status ofGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) andOffice of Inspector General(IG) recommendations in their annual budget justification. The bill is a House companion to S.2276,introducedby U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) andU.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.).Read the full text of theGAO-IGActhere. On December 7th, the Senate passed the GAO-IG Actwith revisions. The now House-passed legislation heads to the President's desk for final signature. These changes represent potential savings of at least $87 billion for taxpayers as agencies will be forced to improve based on IG and GAO recommendations or will be required to provide justification for not implementing the recommendations. As of 2016, there were more than 15,000 open and unimplemented federal agency recommendations from the IG and more than 8,000 open GAO federal agency recommendations. In May, Walker addressed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the legislation precedingits committee approval. Watch Walker's remarks and see a full transcript here and below: "The Government Accountability Office and the inspectors general are the two best sources for recommendations to improve federal government operations. GOA and IG efforts help fight waste, fraud, and abuse, and promote effectiveness and effective executive agencies. GAO and IGs conduct audits and investigations, which often results in reports with recommendations directed to a specific agency. "As of May 16, 2018, GAO has issued 1,566 products with 4,827 open recommendations. "And since 2014, OIGs have issued over 8,900 reports with approximately 40,300 total recommendations. Now during the same time period, OIG has identified over 99 billion dollars in potential savings through their audits and investigations and associated recommendations. But those recommendations are only as valuable as the agency's commitment to implement them. "The GAO-IG Act requires an agency to report on the recommendations from their OIG and GAO within the budget justification to Congress. The agency must also report on the implementation status of each recommendation, and why they may have not been implemented fully. "This creates a process in which agencies must take stock of their open and unimplemented recommendations. It is my hope that the increased transparency will cause agencies to work toward closing these outstanding recommendations. "Congress can also use the new report to improve its oversight activities. This bipartisan legislation will make government better, more accountable, and save taxpayer dollars. "I urge my colleagues to support the bill." | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |