Summary: This report is submitted pursuant to section 301(e) of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2004, which directs the Comptroller General to submit to the Committees on the Budget a comprehensive report identifying instances in which the committees of jurisdiction may make legislative changes to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of federal programs within their jurisdiction.
In this report, we highlight opportunities for and specific examples of legislative and administrative change that might yield budgetary savings. We identify illustrative examples from GAO work of changes or steps that would improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of given programs, sorted by budget function. We indicate whether an example appeared in our 2002 report, Supporting Congressional Oversight: Budgetary Implications of Selected GAO Work for Fiscal Year 2003,2 and whether a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate was included in that report. Each specific example included in this report is not presented as the only way to address the significant economy, efficiency, and effectiveness issues identified in our reviews of federal programs and operations but rather as one of many possible approaches available to the Congress. The inclusion of a specific example does not mean we endorse it as the only feasible or appropriate approach.
