News
Apr 21 2010
GAO: Food programs need to trim the fat
It’s long been said that the federal government is bloated. But a new Government Accountability Office study says even government nutrition programs have grown way out of control.
The study, which goes by the weighty title “Domestic Food Assistance: Complex System Benefits Millions but Additional Efforts Could Address Potential Inefficiency and Overlap among Smaller Programs,” will be released later this week.
While the five largest programs —Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the National School Lunch Program; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the Child and Adult Care Food Program; and the School Breakfast Program — are well-documented successes, the study found widespread duplication and inefficiency among some 70 other government food and nutrition programs.
Little is known about most of the food programs, which are administered by a patchwork of federal, state and local governments. The study looks most closely at 18 federal programs that together cost $62.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.
“Government itself needs to go on a diet,” said government spending curmudgeon and physician Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.).
“Across government, Congress needs to know which programs are working before creating new programs,” he said. “Failing to do the hard work of streamlining these programs harms the very people we intend to help.”
Coburn says he plans to offer legislation in coming days to “eliminate, consolidate and improve the programs.”
So what does this mean for First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to combat childhood obesity, which is likely to foster more government initiatives? Coburn spokesman John Hart said his boss “applauds her for addressing the issue, and hopes this report is of some use to her as she focuses the nation’s attention on this.”
The study, which goes by the weighty title “Domestic Food Assistance: Complex System Benefits Millions but Additional Efforts Could Address Potential Inefficiency and Overlap among Smaller Programs,” will be released later this week.
While the five largest programs —Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the National School Lunch Program; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); the Child and Adult Care Food Program; and the School Breakfast Program — are well-documented successes, the study found widespread duplication and inefficiency among some 70 other government food and nutrition programs.
Little is known about most of the food programs, which are administered by a patchwork of federal, state and local governments. The study looks most closely at 18 federal programs that together cost $62.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.
“Government itself needs to go on a diet,” said government spending curmudgeon and physician Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.).
“Across government, Congress needs to know which programs are working before creating new programs,” he said. “Failing to do the hard work of streamlining these programs harms the very people we intend to help.”
Coburn says he plans to offer legislation in coming days to “eliminate, consolidate and improve the programs.”
So what does this mean for First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to combat childhood obesity, which is likely to foster more government initiatives? Coburn spokesman John Hart said his boss “applauds her for addressing the issue, and hopes this report is of some use to her as she focuses the nation’s attention on this.”
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