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The committee will please come to order. A quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. Pursuant to Committee Rule 5B and House Rule 11, Clause 2, the chair may postpone further proceedings today on the question of approving any measure or matter or adopting an amendment on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. The committee will continue to use electronic system for recorded votes on amendments and passage of the bills before the committee. Of course, should any technical issues arise, which I do not anticipate, we will immediately transition to traditional roll call votes. Any procedural or motion related votes during today's markup will be dispensed with by traditional roll call votes. Our first item for consideration is H.R. 1295, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025. The clerk will please designate the bill. H.R. 1295, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, a bill to amend Chapter 9 of Title V, United States Code, to reauthorize the executive reorganization authority of the president and to ensure efficient executive reorganization and for other purposes. Without objection, the bill should be considered as read and open for amendment at any point. Without objection, so ordered. The chair recognizes himself to offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute. The clerk will please designate the amendment. An amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 1295 offered by Mr. Comer of Kentucky. Without objection, the amendment is considered as read and the substitute will be considered as original text for the purposes of further amendment. I now recognize myself for five minutes for a statement on the bill and the amendment. My bill, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, would renew and extend the authority of the president to propose a government reorganization plan. President Trump promised he would eliminate Washington waste and reform the unchecked federal bureaucracy. And he is delivering on his promises made to the American people.
For decades, and on a bipartisan basis, members of this committee have lamented the inefficiency of the federal bureaucracy. We fought never-ending battles against the waste, fraud, and abuse the bureaucracy generates during both Republican and Democrat administrations. The federal government has expanded dramatically since the early years of our republic. Today, there are more than 400 executive branch agencies and sub-agencies and roughly 1,000 federal commissions. Most of these entities are relatively new creations. They did not exist for most of our nation's history. Not only has the government grown in size and complexity, but it has also taken on many functions once handled by the states or the private sector. Over time, the expansion of entities and programs has led to an increasingly complex bureaucracy with a massive amount of overlap and duplication. For instance, the Government Accountability Office recently found 43 job training programs scattered across nine different federal agencies. That's just one of dozens of areas of wasteful duplication GAO has identified across a range of federal activities. Since 2011, GAO's report on government duplication and overlap has found more than $667 billion in potential cost savings from proposed efficiency reforms. The president has considerable authority within existing law to reorganize certain government offices and functions. But some reorganizations do require changes in law. Throughout a nation's history, such reorganization legislation typically originated from the White House. That's in part because for much of the 20th century, presidential reorganization proposals requiring changes in law were granted special consideration by Congress. The Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 amends the Reorganization Act amendments of 1984 to renew and extend this special consideration through December 2026.
This reorganization authority has not been active since 1985 despite several presidents including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama having asked Congress to renew the authority as this bill would do. Under HR 1295, a reorganization plan must be considered via an up or down vote on a joint resolution of approval within 90 calendar days. This joint resolution is highly privileged, expedited, and not subject to the filibuster. The bill also expands the authority of the president to submit reorganization plans that impact whole executive departments instead of just agencies under current law. Renewing the Special Reorganization Authority, requiring Congress to take an up or down vote on reorganization proposals by the President, will help facilitate needed improvements in government operations. It will also allow Congress to have a say in how government reorganization is carried out. That should be what we want here. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I now yield to the Ranking Member for his opening statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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