Legislators push bills to reorganize agencies, 'sunset' programs

Several members of Congress, backed by the Office of Management and Budget, released legislation Thursday that would create two commissions to oversee federal programs, and possibly shut some down.

Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va.; John Porter, R-Nev.; and Kevin Brady, R-Texas; and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., released the Government Reorganization and Improvement of Performance Act and the Federal Sunset Act Thursday. GRIP would create a commission to seek out redundancies in federal programs. The Sunset Act would establish a panel to review the performance of programs.

The legislation specifies that each commission would include a bipartisan group of seven members. Agencies and programs reviewed under the Sunset Commission would be abolished two years after the commission submitted its recommendations to Congress unless lawmakers reauthorized the programs or authorized extensions of them.

The National Treasury Employees Union was quick to criticize the proposed measures. "This would allow for the administration - any administration - to do reorganization without bringing [it] to Congress for review and input," said NTEU president Colleen Kelley. "It should not be done just because a small group of people want to do it."

In late June, the Office of Management and Budget sent the GRIP legislation, which it wrote, to Congress. Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management, said the primary goal is not to shut down federal programs but to improve performance. He joined the members Thursday.

Porter said the government has 90 early childhood programs, 19 substance abuse programs, and 27 programs that address teen pregnancy. The legislation, he said, would allow Congress to eliminate redundancy and inefficiency.

Brady, who introduced the Sunset Bill, said that in his home state of Texas, a Sunset Commission has saved $720 million and eliminated 44 state agencies. He said about half of all states have some form of sunset legislation.

"In many ways, this is long overdue," Davis said.

Johnson announced the administration's intent to create the two commissions in January. In February, President Bush asked lawmakers to create the two commissions in his budget request.

Brady has introduced sunset legislation in the past but it has not become law.