Sponsors (5)
The bill increases oversight and public transparency to reduce duplicate federal programs and gives agencies a staged effective date, but it imposes extra workload, risks politically influenced delays, and could be used to impede or chill legitimate new programs.
Taxpayers and Congress benefit because GAO will flag potential duplicate or overlapping programs to congressional committees and CBO, helping lawmakers identify and avoid redundant federal spending before enactment.
Federal agencies, state governments, and the public gain greater transparency because GAO findings about potential duplication will be published online for public scrutiny of bills.
Federal agencies and stakeholders get a predictable delayed effective date (tied to OMB's next website update with a 60‑day buffer and a fallback to the next Congress after one year), giving time to prepare and ensuring the amendment doesn't remain indefinite.
GAO and CBO will face additional workload and resource pressure to perform new duplication reviews and produce flagged analyses, which could slow estimates or require additional congressional funding (cost to taxpayers) or cause delays in legislative scoring.
Tying the amendment's effectiveness to OMB's website update (and using the next Congress as a fallback) could create unpredictable or politically influenced delays, leaving agencies, states, and beneficiaries unsure when changes will apply.
The duplication-flagging process could be used to block or slow beneficial new initiatives or subject smaller agencies and pilot programs to higher scrutiny, discouraging targeted innovation or coordination that legitimately overlaps existing efforts.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires GAO to flag and publish instances where reported bills would create new programs/offices that duplicate or overlap features GAO previously identified, and to notify CBO and the reporting committee.
Official title: To require the Comptroller General of the United States to analyze certain legislation in order to prevent duplication of and overlap with existing Federal programs, offices, and initiatives.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Timothy Burchett · Last progress March 26, 2026
Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review every bill or joint resolution of a public character reported by any congressional committee to identify any provisions that would create new programs, offices, or initiatives that duplicate or overlap with features GAO previously identified as duplicative or overlapping. GAO must name the new feature, cite the bill section and the prior GAO report, provide the information to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the committee that reported the measure, and publish the findings online; CBO may include GAO’s information as a supplement to its cost estimate. The new requirement becomes effective on the earlier of 60 days after OMB next updates a specified website or the date a new Congress begins if that occurs more than one year after enactment. The change aims to surface and publicize duplication risks in legislation to improve oversight and budgeting clarity.