The federal government is so large that even counting its programs remains a challenge. The latest official inventory identifies more than 2,600 federal programs covering $7 trillion in spending, yet even this list is incomplete. Across a federal government this expansive overlap is inevitable because multiple programs often pursue the same objectives or provide similar services to the same beneficiaries.
Programs accumulate over decades as Congress responds to new priorities without always revisiting old ones, and, by the time overlap is identified, it is already written into law and embedded in agency budgets. The latest edition of the annual Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on program duplication, fragmentation, and overlap sheds light on just how extensive this problem is.
Thankfully, Congress is taking steps to stop duplication before it starts. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), along with Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced the Duplication Scoring Act of 2025, requiring GAO to screen proposed legislation for potential overlap, giving lawmakers an early warning before new redundancies are written into law.
GAO Duplication Reports
Since 2011, GAO has issued annual reports on federal duplication as required by Section 21 of Public Law 111-139 (31 U.S.C. § 712 note). Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), known for his fiscal hawkishness, was the driving force behind Section 21, attaching the GAO duplication mandate as an amendment to H.J. Res. 45, a bill to raise the federal debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. The amendment passed in February 2010 with a vote of 94-0. The law directs GAO to routinely investigate federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives with duplicative goals, and to report its findings to Congress each year with recommendations for consolidation and elimination.
One of GAO’s most important tools as Congress’s independent auditing agency, this report gives lawmakers a roadmap for targeting inefficiency, increasing coordination, reducing administrative costs, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are used effectively. Its nonpartisan recommendations are designed to improve government efficiency without reducing benefits or eliminating popular programs, making them more likely to be implemented. By publicly tracking these recommendations each year, the report also promotes accountability, giving taxpayers a clear picture of whether Congress is acting to reduce waste and improve fiscal stewardship.
The results speak for themselves. GAO’s 2,148 suggestions have yielded $774.3 billion in savings, among them a 2016 Medicaid policy change that saved $169.8 billion and OMB’s Category Management initiative, which saved $48.8 billion from 2017 to 2021.
2026 Savings
In its newest report, GAO suggested changes to programs that would save $10 billion or more. Some suggestions include:
Nuclear Waste Classification: GAO found that Congress could bring in outside experts to review the legal definition of high-level radioactive waste, a problem that has slowed Department of Energy cleanups for decades. If some of this waste doesn’t actually need the strictest (and most expensive) handling, reclassifying it could speed up cleanup, cut environmental risks, and save tens of billions of dollars.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) Health Care Sharing Agreements: VA and DOD share medical resources, like surgery services, but neither department evaluates how effective these sharing agreements are or systematically looks for new opportunities to expand them. GAO recommended that they start doing both, which could improve access to care and save tens of millions of dollars annually.
Federal Sharing Services: Agencies often run their own payroll, travel, and similar administrative functions separately, even though consolidating these services across government could cut costs. Key leadership roles overseeing this consolidation remain unfilled, and there’s little data on how well shared services perform. Filling those roles and improving data collection could prevent duplication and save tens of millions of dollars over three years.
Government-Wide Anti-Scam Strategy: Several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, work on combating scams but without a coordinated national strategy or shared data on how many people are affected. GAO recommends the FBI lead the development of such a strategy, improving data collection and reducing fragmented efforts across agencies.
Open Matters and Recommendations
Each year, GAO tracks progress on two types of action items: matters requiring congressional action and recommendations directed at federal agencies. This holds both branches publicly accountable. As of 2026, 486 matters and recommendations remain completely unaddressed and another 124 only partially addressed. Together, these open items represent over $100 billion in potential savings still waiting for Congress and federal agencies to act. Among the most significant open recommendations:
Medicare Payments by Place of Service: Medicare currently pays different rates for the same outpatient service depending on whether it’s billed by a physician’s office or a hospital-owned outpatient department. Equalizing these rates, regardless of setting, could save an estimated $156.9 billion over 10 years.
Medicare Part B: Hospitals participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program currently have a financial incentive to prescribe more, or costlier, drugs than necessary for Medicare Part B patients. Removing this incentive could save tens of billions of dollars.
Public-Safety Broadband Network: FirstNet, the nationwide wireless network for police, firefighters, and other first responders, faces a 2027 sunset of its current authorities. Congress should consider reauthorizing it and resolving outstanding statutory and contractual questions, which affect roughly $15 billion in scheduled payments over 15 years.
Preventing New Duplication Before It Gets Enacted
Given the scale of duplication and overlap that already exists across the federal bureaucracy, Congress should have a way to flag potentially redundant functions before they are written into new legislative proposals. Members in both chambers have proposed a reform to do just that.
The Duplication Scoring Act 2025 was reintroduced to the Senate as S. 2733 by Senators Paul and Hassan. A companion bill in the House, H.R. 8096, sponsored by Rep. Burchett, passed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in May 2026, showing momentum for the bill.
The bill would help Congress identify duplicate or overlapping federal programs before they are created. It would direct GAO to review reported legislation for proposed new programs, offices, or initiatives that risk duplicating current programs and functions across the federal bureaucracy.
If GAO identifies a potential overlap, a function made easier thanks to the progress made in building a comprehensive inventory of federal programs, it would notify the relevant committee and the Congressional Budget Office so that it can include this information in its legislative cost estimates and analyses.
This reform would shift GAO’s role from a retrospective—finding duplication after the programs have already been created and funded—to a proactive role. It would flag potential overlap before the bill ever reaches the floor. This could help Congress avoid creating new, redundant programs GAO has spent over a decade identifying and reporting, rather than relying on GAO’s annual report to catch waste after the fact.
Conclusion
The federal government’s duplication problem is not insurmountable. GAO’s annual reports have delivered $774.3 billion in savings, proving that reform is possible. But with 30% of its recommendations still unaddressed and hundreds of billions yet unrealized, there is more work to do.
Reform legislation would address the problem closer to its source by giving Congress a way to identify potentially redundant programs, offices, and initiatives before they are created. By advancing the Duplication Scoring Act, Senators Rand Paul and Maggie Hassan, along with Rep. Tim Burchett, offer lawmakers a practical tool to prevent today’s legislative proposals from becoming tomorrow’s wasteful duplication.