Obama: Administration attacking waste with a ‘vengeance’

President Obama signed legislation aimed at cutting down on inappropriate payments by federal agencies on Thursday, saying "we have to challenge a status quo that accepts billions of dollars in waste as the cost of doing business."

The legislation, known as the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, requires agencies to perform recovery audits on all their programs and to produce corrective action plans with targets to reduce overpayment errors. It mandates reviews of programs that could be susceptible to "significant improper payments" at least once every three years.

Obama characterized the law as fitting in with a broader administration effort to cut down on unnecessary spending. "We began by combining -- by going through the budget line by line and proposing $20 billion worth of cuts each year by targeting programs that are wasteful, duplicative or, in some cases, just plain ridiculous," he said. That, Obama said, includes $35 million for a new radio navigation system for ships ("since we now have this thing called GPS, we don't need it") and $3 million that the Homeland Security Department spent on a consultant to create new logos and seals for the department ("their logos and seals are fine").

Obama also made the case that the administration has "gone after wasteful government contracting with a vengeance." Agencies, he said, are on track to hit a goal of saving $40 billion in contracting by the end of fiscal 2011.

Obama drew laughter when he made reference to another initiative to freeze salaries for senior White House officials. "Hence the glum faces" among assembled staff at the ceremony, he said.

In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the improper payments law "a critical step forward for fiscal discipline."