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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Rep. Andy Harris Votes To Eliminate Obsolete Federal Agency


Saves taxpayers $33 million over the next five years



Washington, D.C.
– Rep. Andy Harris voted today in support of H.R. 672, which would eliminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Eliminating the EAC would save taxpayers $33 million over the next five years, according to the Committee on House Administration.

“In a time of deep fiscal crisis, we have to eliminate out-of-date and inefficient government agencies,” said Rep. Andy Harris. “The Election Assistance Commission is no longer necessary, and we cannot afford to waste another dime of taxpayer money on an obsolete federal agency.”

Background:

The EAC has allocated all of its remaining election grants, originally created to provide funding to states for upgraded voting machines.

The remaining valuable service of the EAC, the voting system testing and certification program, will be transferred to the Federal Election Commission which is better able to efficiently perform these functions.

Since 2005, the year Congress originally intended to sunset the EAC, the agency has more than doubled in size.

The agency, recently the subject of two hiring discrimination lawsuits, currently spends over 50% of its budget on management and overhead costs.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

shoot, was hoping it was epa

Anonymous said...

Rep. Harris attempts to keep in touch with his constituents. I just hope he won't get mowed down by some of his colleagues in the House! He seems to be trying to help get our country's out-of-control debt back in control!

Drew said...

Bravo

Anonymous said...

Great news. We need more congressmen willing to step up and stop the waste. Too bad this is only a very small drop in the bucket.

Bullard Construction said...

He, or anyone for that matter, could spend their entire term blowing out departments that were created and no longer useful or duplicated by other agencies. My estimate is that 40^ of agencies are either useless or obsolete.

Anonymous said...

Such as?

Anonymous said...

to 1:37, hhs, epa, and energy and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Anonymous said...

How about. Department of education, EPA, FCC, TSA, DOE, NHTSA, I could go on and on.

Everyone think about useless government agencies. There are many.

Anonymous said...

3:33 AM

Oh I agree, I just wanted to see how many he could name.

Anonymous said...

They probably will never get rid of D.O.T. but they need to get someone in there who knows what to do.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Dr. Harris. Finally (hopefully) someone trying to SAVE us money instead of spending it. Please don't get caught up in Washington pork barrel garbage or my next vote will be for someone else.

Anonymous said...

8:19 Correct you are on both points. They will never get rid of the DOT - Andy is on the committe on Transportation and Yes Again, they need to get someone in there who knows what to do. Did I mention Andy sits on that Committee?