Texas Insider Report: SAN ANGELO Texas One thing I often tell my Senate colleagues who hail from around the country is that Washington ought to be a little more like Texas and not the other way around. An analysis of recent employment data shows that over the last 10 years Texas added 732000 jobs far and away the most in the country. The second-highest state didnt break 100000.
Relative to the rest of the nation Texas has fared better during this economic downturn. From lawsuit reform to a pro-business regulatory environment states facing tough choices such as California increasingly look to us for guidance.
One model found in Austin that federal lawmakers should look to during the ongoing debate over federal spending and debt is
the Texas Sunset Commission.
The commission is the result of the sunset process that the state of Texas instituted in 1977 to identify and eliminate waste duplication and inefficiency in government agencies. This process led to the elimination of dozens of agencies and saved Texas taxpayers more than $700 million. Currently about half of the states have instituted a similar process.
Last week I filed an amendment to the Economic Development Administration Reauthorization bill that would establish a federal sunset commission based on the Texas model. The federal program would help improve government oversight eliminate wasteful Washington spending and alleviate the debt that we leave our children and grandchildren.
The last time I offered the idea of a sunset commission as a floor amendment was in 2008 when the annual budget deficit was a little less than $500 billion. It is now expected that the deficit will be $1.6 trillion by years end more than three times as large.
The debt was less than $10 trillion in 2008; now it is over $14 trillion which is
an increase of more than 40 percent in three years.
A recent Government Accountability Office report confirmed our federal government is wrought with wasteful duplicative programs. It reported more than:
- 100 duplicative programs dealing with surface transportation issues
- 82 monitoring teacher quality
- 80 for economic development
- 47 for job training and
- 17 different grant programs for disaster preparedness.
The commission Im proposing made up of eight members of Congress would focus on putting a stop to redundant government programs such as these.
The commission would annually identify these duplicative programs through the GAO and review each program and submit their recommendations which must be considered by Congress under expedited procedures. Congress will have two years to consider and pass the Commissions recommendations or to reauthorize the program before it is abolished.
President Obamas own bipartisan Fiscal Commission recommended a federal sunset commission concept last December singling out the Texas model specifically. The Fiscal Commission reported in part that the original and arguably most effective committee exists at the state level in Texas Based on the estimated savings achieved for every dollar spent on the sunset process the state has received $27 in return.
This commission would help Congress answer a simple yet powerful question: Is a program still needed?
Programs that outlive their usefulness or fail to spend tax dollars efficiently are a burden on the American taxpayer and should be eliminated. This is an approach
that gives Democrats and Republicans an opportunity to come together and recognize that there are parts of government that arent working and eliminate them.
It also gives the American people a government that not only spends less but spends more effectively and works efficiently.
Finally it gives Washington an opportunity that many other states have already taken advantage of:
the chance to emulate Texas.
