WASHINGTON — An Indiana congressman is rolling out bipartisan legislation aimed at revamping the roughly $150 billion spent each year in federal grants and is mounting a separate effort to push Congress to address Uncle Sam’s roughly $2.8 trillion in improper spending since 2003.
Republican Rep. Rudy Yakym’s Evidence-Based Grantmaking Act would require federal agencies to ensure they have proper evaluations of whether the grants being doled out are actually effective.
The bill comes in response to a study showing that only 42% of federal managers believe their respective agencies’ information about their grants being issues were of sufficient quality.
“Taxpayer dollars should go to what works,” Yakym, who co-chairs the What Works Caucus, told The Post. “We should be funding things that are measurable, that people can come to us with evidence and demonstrate clearly that these things work.”
“Only 25% of federal programs are actually deemed to be working based upon evidence. We should make sure that all federal programs, all grant money that leaves the federal Treasury is actually working.”
Yakym’s legislation has garnered support from Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Brittany Pettersen (D-Col.), Deborah Ross (D-NC), Blake Moore (R-Utah) and William Timmons (R-SC).
“Improving government efficiency isn’t as simple as eliminating entire programs or downsizing federal agencies to save a quick buck,” Bacon said in a statement. “It requires careful, impartial consideration of what’s actually performing, and leaning on data and evidence.”
The legislation requires the heads of agencies passing out grants to give them a “clearly defined purpose” and then to set up procedures to evaluate the results of those grants to ensure they are effective.
Congress will then get annual reports detailing agency efforts to take an evidence-based approach to grantmaking.
“Our federal dollars go towards so many programs that support families, enhance innovation, and strengthen our economy,” said Pettersen, the Democratic co-chair of the What Works Caucus.
“This bipartisan bill is a commonsense measure to make our government more efficient.”
Yakym, who sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and previously sat on the Budget Committee, has been exploring ways to rein in government waste.
Last year, he reintroduced legislation, “The Improper Payments Transparency Act,” which is aimed at tackling the hundreds of billions of dollars of improper payments the federal government is estimated to make annually.
There has been an estimated $2.8 trillion worth of improper payments since 2003, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
“We actually dug into this when I was on the Budget Committee last year. It seems like it’s frankly, probably about right,” Yakym said when asked if that estimate was reliable.
Under his legislation, which he is hoping to advance through committee this year, each individual federal agency will be required to report on improper payments made, the reasons why, and the steps being taken to fix them.
Yakym is hoping that the renewed attention to government fraud in the wake of the scandal roiling Minnesota will create momentum for legislation to fix those issues.
“This is a problem. We need to fix this. And we’re hearing loud and clear from the American people,” he said. “I think that now is the right time for us to take a bill like this.”
