Think of this as you would milk: Federal agencies would have an expiration date that becomes effective unless Congress acts to make sure they aren't discarded.
That's the premise behind Bush administration-backed legislation to provide for a Sunset Commission . The president would rank agencies to be evaluated and appoint a seven-person bipartisan panel to do the work. Essentially, the agencies would be on notice that they had to meet performance standards or face major change or elimination. The Sunset Commission itself would sunset in 2026.
Another bill would create Results Commissions , which would convene over nine-month periods to look at overlapping or redundant programs that the government might be better off without.
Prospects for such proposals in the past have not been particularly good, but co-sponsors of this legislation think White House commitment will make a difference this time. Co-sponsor Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) said he hopes hearings will be scheduled in the fall.
Very occasionally, federal programs are eliminated. The Federal Helium Reserve program was deflated, and the Civil Aeronautics Board , the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Board of Tea Examiners were thrown overboard.
Sunset commissions have been proposed before, and the approach has been tried in some 20 states, most notably Texas.
The Bush administration came up with both ideas as part of what it calls its plan to make government more efficient and to provide better returns for taxpayers. Critics call the effort a way to eliminate agencies and the programs and regulations that go with them, a charge the administration rejects.
"The big opportunity is to get programs to work better, not get rid of them," said Clay Johnson , deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget .
Robert Shull , director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch , a nonprofit group that monitors OMB, said there were no safeguards in the bills to stop the administration from "reorganizing" out of existence programs that support environmental or health and safety regulation.
Johnson said it was important there be an institutionalized system for review. "No program is performing at a never-can-get-better level," he said. OMB said 30 percent of federal programs are currently rated as ineffective or can't show results.
"Our government is too fat, and we need a thoughtful way to trim it," said Brady, who is the author of several previous, similar bills. "This is not a one-time fix [for] just a few agencies. You hold every agency accountable."
The model for the administration's initiative is the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission , which was set up in 1978 and has abolished 47 agencies and consolidated 11. Each agency in the state submits to a review every 12 years, and a professional staff helps with the evaluation. Commission data show an estimated $736.9 million was saved between 1982 and 2003.
