U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), courtesy of Burr's office.
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U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), courtesy of Burr’s office.
Today (May 5), U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach.
“The amount of money wasted annually on duplicative programs within the federal government is staggering,” Burr said. “This common-sense approach will reduce duplicative and wasteful functions across these two agencies and streamline our approach to a comprehensive, coordinated energy and environmental policy.”
The DOEE would combine support and administrative offices of the two agencies and would take the recommendations from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to eliminate ineffective or duplicative programs. Core functions of each agency would be maintained.
By implementing suggestions made by GAO and the President’s 2012 budget request, this bill could result in over $3 billion in savings in the next year alone.
Current co-sponsors of the legislation are: Jim Demint (R-SC), Mike Enzi (R-WY), John Thune (R-SD), John McCain (R-AZ), Dan Coats (R-IN), Richard Shelby (R-AL), John Barasso (R-WY), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), David Vitter (R-LA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT).
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