A report accompanying an appropriations bill for the
Interior Department and associated agencies for fiscal
2005 (HR-4568) passed by the House states that the agencies
funded under the bill “need to manage better the funds
they have . . . Each agency funded in the bill needs to
examine carefully its way of doing business in these
constrained fiscal times and focus on its core, proven
programs and on better management of resources,” said the
Appropriations Committee report.
The report said that Interior, its sub-agencies and the
other agencies covered by the bill–most prominently, the
Forest Service, certain Energy Department programs and
many federal arts agencies–should make “maximum use of
low cost airfares, consistent with General Services
Administration guidelines. Major new construction projects
should not be initiated at the expense of critical
operations and maintenance requirements. Likewise, no new
construction project should be initiated without a
thorough analysis of the future staffing, operations,
and maintenance costs that will result.”
The committee said it “appreciates the need for information
technology improvements, enterprise services networks,
and implementing portions of the President’s management
agenda. However, to date, a lot of funding has been
dedicated to these initiatives without a well thought-out
and reasonable approach to addressing requirements.
Commercially available systems, through the private
sector, should be used to the maximum extent possible
rather than building customized new systems.
“Likewise, the Committee does not endorse the practice
of assessing costs against programs to build bigger
administrative bureaucracies in response to new
administrative and technology requirements or the
practice of reducing program budgets on the basis of
presumed future savings. These costs should be clearly
justified and requested under administrative accounts
and any future savings associated with administrative
improvements should be demonstrated before budget
reductions are proposed. While portions of the
Administration’s management agenda may indeed be useful,
funds should not be taken from all agencies to provide
centralized funding for the various lead agencies. If
funding is needed for government wide initiatives, it
should be requested and managed by each lead agency.”
The committee report in particular singled out the Park
Service, saying that foreign travel is “strongly
discouraged” and asking the agency to submit all proposed
foreign travel for the committee’s prior approval. It
also urged the agency to approve only essential domestic
travel, limit the number and size of national conferences
and regional meetings, and use alternatives such as
teleconferencing when possible.