Horn Calls for White House CFO

Saying the White House "lacks sound financial management," Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., has introduced a bill that would require the president to appoint a chief financial officer for the Executive Office of the President.

Horn, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, blasted the White House's accounting systems.

"It pays for equipment it no longer needs. It has paid for items that were never delivered. In the last Congress, we learned of egregrious waste and abuse due to inadequate accounting controls," Horn said. "This dismal performance is an embarassment to the American people."

Horn's bill, H.R. 1962, would apply the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 to the Executive Office of the President. The president would be required to appoint a chief financial officer and a deputy CFO, whose jobs would include establishing reliable cost accounting systems.

A spokesman for the White House said he was not prepared to comment on the bill.