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Health & Fitness

Maloney Unveils Bipartisan Make Government Work Legislation

Washington, D.C. -  After months of meeting regularly with colleagues on both sides of aisle as a No Labels Congressional Problem Solver, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18) partnered with over 70 Democratic and Republican Members of Congress to announce the Make Government Work package of common-sense ideas that would save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. The Make Government Work legislative reforms are designed to make government more efficient, effective and less wasteful.  It is the first legislative initiative by the No Labels Problem Solvers coalition.

 

“I didn’t come here to be part of the Red Team or Blue Team – I came here to find solutions and get results for my neighbors back home in the Hudson Valley,” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney. “After months of working across the aisle, we’ve come up with some smart, sensible ideas to make our government more efficient and save taxpayers billions of dollars.”

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“Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and the other problem solvers are waking folks up to the fact that there are people that want change and it is not wishful thinking that we can get things done,” said Ron Tobias, Leadership Council of Westchester No Labels. “Rep. Maloney is a prime example of what we can accomplish when we work together and I commend him for making an effort to try to solve our country’s problems through concrete solutions.”

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Earlier this year, Rep. Maloney joined No Labels and spoke on the House Floor to express support for the work of No Labels Congressional Problem Solvers which has expanded to 81 Members.

 

Background on Legislation

21st Century Healthcare for Heroes (H.R. 2590):  After fighting for our freedom, veterans are now forced to fight with our government – our veterans deserve better.  Nationally, more than 745,000 veterans are seeking compensation and pension disability benefits with nearly 500,000 backlogged claims. The New York regional VA office currently has over 7,000 veterans waiting on disability claims with the average wait time 253 days as of July 2013. Earlier this year, Rep. Maloney introduced the Disabled Veterans Red Tape Reduction Act which keeps in place a tool the VA needs to address the growing backlog problem. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense and the VA still do not have a unified electronic health system. This bill would help our veterans by merging the electronic health records of the Department of Defense with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

 

Buy Smarter, Save More – With dozens of agencies and divisions in the federal government, it is not uncommon for each of these entities to make completely independent buying decisions for basic office supplies. We can enforce strategic sourcing so that separate divisions within a single federal agency do not make independent contracts for common items and save taxpayers an estimated $10 billion a year.

 

Plan for Efficient and Effective Government (H.R. 2675): Too many government programs are inefficient, costly, or duplicative.  This legislation would create a new Commission for Government Transformation to oversee the transformation of various federal government programs, so they will be more economical, efficient and effective.

 

No Budget, No Pay (H.R. 310):  If Congress can’t make budget decisions on time, they shouldn’t get paid on time either. Earlier this year, Rep. Maloney supported No Budget, No Pay for this year’s budget process and for the first time in years, both the Senate and the House passed a budget. This stronger No Budget No Pay would require Congress to pass both the budget and annual spending bills.

 

Stay in Place, Cut the Waste (H.R. 2643):  Although some travel for federal employees is essential, travel to conferences, training programs and meetings cost the federal government billions of dollars. This legislation would direct the OMB to collect reports on executive agency travel and come up with a plan to reduce it by 50 percent and replace it with video conferencing to save taxpayers an estimated $50 billion over ten years.
 

Wasted Energy, Wasted Dollars (H.R. 2689): The federal government is the largest energy consumer in America. To save taxpayers up to $1 billion per year, this legislation would leverage public private partnerships to implement energy conservation measures. 

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