April 6, 2026
The Honorable Tim Burchett
1122 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Melanie Stansbury
1421 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Burchett, Ranking Member Stansbury, and Members of the Subcommittee,
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union, the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, I write to express our strong support for H.R. 8096, the Duplication Scoring Act of 2026. This bipartisan legislation promotes fiscal responsibility by ensuring that taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted on redundant and overlapping government programs.
Our country’s fiscal trajectory is unsustainable. The national debt now exceeds $39 trillion, and interest payments already consume about 13% of the entire U.S. federal budget. Against this backdrop, it’s more urgent than ever that lawmakers adopt proactive strategies to protect the interests of taxpayers. Worse yet, the federal government still lacks an accurate inventory of exactly how many programs and agencies currently exist.
Each year, Congress considers numerous bills that would establish new government programs without regard to what is already being done elsewhere in the bureaucracy. When weighing the merits of these legislative proposals, lawmakers should have readily available information on whether those bills create duplicative programs, as there is a decent chance that a similar initiative already exists somewhere in the massive federal bureaucracy.
Specifically, this legislation directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review every bill that reaches the floor of either the House or Senate to identify any provisions that might create a program or office duplicating an existing federal initiative.
Year after year, the GAO has warned lawmakers that billions of taxpayer dollars are needlessly wasted on duplicative programs. Since 2011, the GAO has identified more than 2,000 specific actions for Congress and federal agencies to address inefficiencies caused by overlapping and fragmented government programs.
The Duplication Scoring Act is a commonsense reform that empowers lawmakers with the information they need to stop overlapping programs from becoming law in the first place.
At its core, this legislation is about ensuring Congress can make informed decisions. NTU is proud to support the Duplication Scoring Act and looks forward to working with you to help it become law.
Sincerely,
Alexander Ciccone
Policy and Government Affairs Manager
National Taxpayers Union