releases: https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-releases-waste-report-federal-fumbles-100-ways-the-government-dropped-the-ball
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/lankford-releases-waste-report-federal-fumbles-100-ways-the-government-dropped-the-ball | Lankford Releases Waste Report: Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball | 2015-11-30 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Republican | House | OK | James Lankford | L000575 | www.lankford.senate.gov | legacy | 11.30.15 Lankford Releases Waste Report: Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball WASHINGTON, DC During a press conference today, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) released a federal government waste and solutions report. The report highlights examples of wasteful or duplicative spending, along with burdensome regulations but also offers policy solutions to each of the problems. Lankford's report, entitled, Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball, will serve as guide for his office to work with federal agencies and departments to turn the waste highlighted in the report to solutions over the next year. CLICK HERE for high-resolution photos from the press conference. CLICK HERE to view the full video of the press conference from YouTube. CLICK HERE to clip the video from C-SPAN. Excerpts: On the need for the Federal Fumbles waste report: The concern is that we are going to lose our focus on debt and spending. There are a lot of national issues that we're facing right now. All of them are very important to us. The debt issue still remains one of those primary issues that has to be resolved and it can be resolved. There's this belief, that it (debt) is so large it's difficult to take on, and it's not fixable. It is fixable. So, what I want to have is some way we can lay a plan in place and we can start to identify some of these issues. On our current pace, let's say we are actually to put into place the budget we have and actually fulfill it. That means in ten years from now we'd be back to balance. We would go from, about $450 billion in deficit spending this year to balanced budget in ten yearsIf we had a $50 billion surplus in the eleventh year, if we did that, we would have to continue to do it every year for the next 460 years to pay off our debtNow, let's just say we balanced it next year. If we balanced it next year then it's only a measly 380 years that we have to have a $50 billion surplus. I think we're losing track of how difficult this is really going to be long term and what needs to be done. On the focus for the Federal Fumble waste report: The fumble book that we haveisn't just waste.It's also areas where the federalgovernment has violated itstrusted responsibilities: wasted taxpayer dollars; programs that are ripe withfraud; duplication andinefficiency; over regulatingthat raises the cost ofgoods and services; for theconsumers and government processes that deceivestaxpayers and adds to thefamily's debt responsibility.With each of these issues, we alsolay out a solution We also highlight some exampleswhere we think the governmentis already addressing some of theseissues.This is not just a matter ofall complaints and nosolutions.There are some things that arehappening correctly.For instance, some of theduplication reports that theGAO has put out for severalyears, we have made some progress on that duplication. The Department of Justice, just in the past couple of years, has cut theirconferencing budget by 2/3 and they are to becommended for that. So this is our to-do list.This is what our office plansto work on in the days ahead.This is not just us and whatwe're trying to do.We're encouraging everyoffice to take this on as well.It's find your own list andlook for the common ground and let's tryto get some of these things done. Examples from the report highlighted by Senator Lankford: Some of these areobvious issues we've faced for along time, like the earnedincome tax credit.It continues to be the largestarea of fraud in the federalgovernment year after year.It's almost $18 billion infraud just for this year.That year after year is on thehigh list of something we needto be able to evaluate as a government. The death master file is another one. Senator Tom Carper has laid outa bill saying: 'why can't thesocial security administrationbe able to share thisinformation with otherentities?'We have millions of socialsecurity numbers that arehanging out there that thosesocial security numbers are thenvulnerable for fraud, intowaste, individuals voting onthose, individuals getting jobson those, individuals filingfalse tax reports on those. That should be resolved, that can be resolved butwe're losingbillions of dollars in theprocess. Some of my other favorites that are out there: the National Park Service did astudy on what do bugs do whenyou turn on the light in a darkrural place.Every person in rural Oklahomacan tell you what bugs do whenyou turn on the light in a darkplace.Some of these are commonsensethings we need to be able toevaluate.Why are we doing this? For the regulations we focusedon several things.We focused on what the federalgovernment should do and notdo.This is not an anti-regulationpiece but some of theseregulations do have realeffects on Americans.The Waters of the United Statesrule, the courts have alreadystopped it.The Corps of Engineers havealready said they don't want toimplement this rule.It will be an issue that willcost Americans billions ofdollars. What's happening with communitybanks right now, and what'scalled the Qualified Mortgage Piece, coming out of Dodd-Frankhas real effect in ruralAmerica.It is very difficult to get a homeloan.In urban areas, there aremultiple different banks anddifferent entities that can do home loans.In rural America, there'susually one or two and if youmake it hard, you make it veryhard for individuals in rural America to be ableto get that. ### Print Email Tweet Next Article Previous Article | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |