House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, laid out the Republican agenda for the second session of the 106th Congress, including a focus on making the federal government more efficient.
"We will begin to eliminate the rampant waste, fraud and abuse that plagues so much of the federal bureaucracy," DeLay said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation on Thursday.
Also Thursday, the House Conservative Action Team sent a letter to President Clinton urging that the administration's fiscal 2001 budget, which he will send to Congress Feb. 7, "offset any proposals for increased spending with reductions in waste, fraud and abuse rather than tax increases."
The letter, signed by 28 House conservatives, noted that the White House has recently proposed "over $12 billion in new or increased spending" without explaining how it would be paid for "in the context of a balanced budget that protects 100 percent of the Social Security surplus and reduces the debt."
The letter said federal agencies have fairly easily identified $2.4 billion to eliminate from their budgets to comply with a 0.38 percent across-the-board cut included in the fiscal 2000 budget agreement. The letter also pointed out that the General Accounting Office has identified about $20 billion in fraudulent or wasteful overpayments in federal programs.
"We believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg," the conservatives said. "We encourage you to propose new efforts where we can work together to eliminate wasteful government spending and protect the interests of the American taxpayer."
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