BILLIONS WASTED, GAO SAYS NEW REPORT IDENTIFIES SAVINGS FOR TAXPAYERS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - From a fishy conservation scheme to a multibillion-dollar gun that may never be fired in anger, Congress' investigative arm has come up with numerous ways to trim billions of taxpayer dollars from the 2002-03 federal budget. But critics say the will to pursue and purge waste is insufficient on Capitol Hill.

A new annual report compiled by the General Accounting Office features 316 pages of reports on ill-conceived outlays, outmoded programs and squandered revenue opportunities that could be corrected before Congress signs off on the budget this fall.

``We can never afford to waste money,'' said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, a member of the Democrats' fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. ``It's even more important to be responsible with taxpayers' money now that we have a deficit. But cutting the budget is tougher than it looks. There's always a constituency or an entrenched bureaucracy out there that wants to spend money.

``We just have to take on all of the sacred cows, even if they've been around for decades,'' added Schiff, who cited foreign aid spending as his pet fiscal peeve. ``Fifty percent of the money we allocate to help people never leaves the Beltway. It gets eaten up by bureaucracy and consultants.''

``All of the spending in this report is indefensible, but it requires an active will to make changes,'' said Sean Rushton, spokesman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group. ``And you can always find a House member or senator who will defend to the death his or her piece of the pie.''

``GAO puts out first-class materials that every concerned taxpayer should pay attention to,'' said Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, an Oregon-based group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader. ``Its just too bad Congress doesn't pay more heed to those reports.''

Paul Posner, GAO's managing director of federal budget issues and leader of the team that compiled the report, summed up his agency's role.

``We have no power to make changes. That's up to members of Congress,'' said Posner. ``We simply have the power to persuade and possibly the power to embarrass.''

Among the embarrassments in GAO's new report is the National Marine Fisheries Services' $250 million buyback conservation program. The agency, part of the Department of Commerce, buys licenses, boats and gear from commercial fishermen in an effort to cut down on the harvest of dwindling fish populations.

GAO's investigation of the program in New England found that many recipients used their buyback money to purchase new boats and gear and resumed fishing. Also, most of the boats purchased with tax dollars were later sold to other commercial fishermen, ultimately adding to the fleet and the fish harvest.

GAO recommended scrapping the program, citing lack of control over the use of payments and the reuse of equipment.

The $9 billion program for the Crusader, a mammoth new Army howitzer under development by Virginia-based United Defense, was also recommended for the scrap heap.

The GAO report noted that the Crusaders, which cost $23.3 million each and weigh 40 tons (it takes two giant C-17 aircraft to transport the gun in parts to a combat zone), will likely be rendered obsolete before they go into action.

The GAO found that the Army has already made the decision to shed all of its heavy weaponry and develop lighter and more mobile weapons for future battlefields.

GAO investigators also took on some hardy annuals, including a proposal, first made in 1949, to cut overhead by combining the separate Army, Navy and Air Force health care systems into a single administrative unit.

Squandered revenue opportunities outlined by GAO included such anachronisms as a federal mining claim fee that has not been increased since 1872 and a Federal Aviation Administration registration charge for private aircraft unchanged since 1968.

The GAO also recommended ending the salutes rated by the 6,000 officers of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. The health professionals and bureaucrats, led by the appointed surgeon general, are eligible for the same taxpayer-paid benefits, including a generous retirement plan after 20 years of service, as Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps officers who go into harm's way.

GAO investigators noted that the corps, established in 1798 to care for merchant seamen and later assigned to military medical operations, has not had an assigned Pentagon role since 1952. They recommended that new hires be made civilian federal employees, a move that could save taxpayers millions of dollars in future benefits.

Congress further questioned the wisdom of having the State Department spend millions of dollars each year to help its overseas employees relocate. Spending on in-house relocation services topped $700,000 last year at the London embassy alone. GAO found several English relocation companies could perform the task for only $130,000.

One of the GAO's budget-cutting suggestions has already bitten the dust. It called for the elimination of the $1 bill and widened circulation of the longer-lasting dollar coin, a move it estimated would save $450 million a year in printing costs. On April 4, the U.S. Mint suspended production of the $1 Sacagawea coin, which was shunned by consumers and reviled by the vending machine industry.

Posner said he's used to a mix of triumphs and setbacks.

``The watchwords at GOA are vigilance and patience,'' he said. ``Sometimes it's eternal patience.''

SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS

Here are some cases taken from a new federal report, along with the recommended steps to increase revenue or cut costs:

--The National Marine Fisheries Service spends $250 million a year to buy boats and gear from commercial fishermen in a fish conservation effort. Many recipients use their buyback money to purchase new boats and equipment and resume fishing.

General Accounting Office recommends: Scrap program and save $250 million.

--Annual personnel costs for State Department employees are $200,000 for each person posted overseas, $100,000 for a worker stationed in Washington.

GAO recommends: Move 1 percent of nonessential overseas workers back to the United States and save $35 million over five years.

--Led by the surgeon general, the 6,000 officers of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service enjoy the same generous retirement benefits as Army, Navy and Air Force and Marine Corps officers but have not been part of the military since 1952.

GAO recommends: Convert them to civilian status, saving millions of dollars in benefits.

--The Social Security Administration pays $69 billion a year in disability benefits. The number of beneficiaries grew from 4.5 million to 7.5 million in the 1990s, but less than 0.5 percent of recipients recovered and left the program.

GAO recommends: SSA should develop a return-to-work program similar to those now required by state and federal welfare systems.

--The Department of Veterans Affairs pays $19 billion a year to vets for service-related disabilities. Standards for evaluating applicants have not changed since 1945, when many jobs required manual labor.

GAO recommends: Revise rating system to reflect medical advances and workplace changes over the last 57 years, remove capable vets from benefit rolls and offer job placement and training.

--The Selective Service System has drafted no one since 1973 but continues to register males age 18 and up.

GAO recommends: Mothball the system. The one-time cost of restarting the draft from scratch in a national emergency is estimated at $23 million, the same amount as the Selective Service System's annual budget.

--The Department of Agriculture's Market Access Program doles out $90 million a year, mostly to major corporations, to promote sales of U.S. food products overseas.

GAO recommends: Scrap the program.

--Federal homeless assistance efforts consist of seven major agencies doling out a total of $1.2 billion in 16 often-duplicative programs.

GAO recommends: Consolidate efforts into a single program, saving millions of dollars in administrative overhead.

--The Pentagon and other federal agencies are required to use U.S.-owned and -crewed cargo ships to carry goods, often at higher-than-market rates.

GAO recommends: Drop cargo preference program and use most affordable shipper, saving $545 million over five years.

--The Federal Aviation Administration's $5 aircraft registration fee has not been increased since 1968. Processing registrations costs FAA $6.5 million a year. The fee income is $1.7 million.

GAO recommends: Raise fees to at least recover costs.

--The $5 per-acre royalty charged for mining on federal lands has not been raised since 1872. Each year, such mining yields minerals with an estimated value of $1.2 billion.

GAO recommends: Raise fees slightly to generate $7 million a year in added income.

Source: General Accounting Office

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