Department Consolidation: Part 01

Federal Budget, Department & Agency Reduction

Federal Budget, Department & Agency Reduction and employee down-sizing; through attrition and retirement.

Some General Notes:

Note A:

For every two federal employees that retire, only one new employee is hired. The person is hired, only if the work-load requires it, at an individual office, team or project/program level.

Note B:

Freeze Government spending at current levels, for Five budget years.

Note C:

After the five year period, return the federal government budget process to a zero-dollar analysis, and every agency, department and board will submit budgets accordingly.

Strategy

I think you know what I'm going to say . . .

YOU are the VOTER.

You are the boss and in charge of this representative system of government.

1. Shoe-horning the federal government back inside the Constitution, means electing more members of Congress, who understand this MUST happen.

2. I'm talking about 300 new members of Congress every two years.

3. If 100 million citizens would call, e-mail and write letters to their Congressional delegation once a month, things would start changing. Eliminating agencies and departments not part of Constitutional authority is hard work.

4. Start researching all the candidates in your district. I cannot do this alone.

Part 03:

Departments downsized, consolidation or elimination:

Note 01:

Under the Constitution and with the understanding that today, we cannot ask Portugal to provide a navy; the following 4 departments are critical federal government infrastructure:

Note 02:

These departments still will be downsized, re-organized and combined with other agencies and departments in the below listings:

Dept. of State

Dept. of Treasury

Dept. of Justice

Dept. of Defense

Dept. of Interior

USPS

Note 03:

I was not a fan of comingling many different agencies and former bureaus into a DHS “Homeland Security” puzzle.

Setting aside different department cultures and computer systems, you've essentially added three layers of additional red-tape onto each of these agencies. Then we expect them to work better, faster, stronger.

I'm not a fan of the offcie of the Director of National Intelligence either. Again, you've added layers of red-tape but expect the intelligence product to be more efficient.

These are very new entities, but I just don't know how you unravel them. It should be 'easier' since they're newer, but it is actuall harder.

For now I would just leave DHS and DNI on a shelf andf come back to it later.

My below recommendations are enough to keep everyone busy with needed change.

Consolidation 01:

Dept. of Education:

Dept. of HHS

Dept. of Agriculture

These three are re-organized into the:

Dept. of Health, Welfare & Education.

This dept. shall consist of the following agencies, boards and bureaus:

Office of the Secretary

Office of the deputy Secretary

Office of Inspector General

Office for Civil Rights

Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

Office of the General Counsel

Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs Overview Home Page

Office of Communications and Outreach

Institute of Education Sciences

(This official will answer directly to the Deputy Secretary)

All 9 Children and family agencies need to under one office, with total operational staff to be cut by 50%. Phased in over a three year period.

Just by looking at the current flow-chart, there are many over-lapping offices.

Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease registry : Combine with CDC.

Consolidation 02:

Idea 01:

Dept. of Defense:

Fold in Dept. of Veterans Affairs:

Take off the top three layers of secretaries, deputies and assistants, and fold this into the DOD, answering to an asst. secretary of veterans affairs.

Combine the computer systems. Once a soldier, sailor, etc. enters military service, the same ID Number and information is in one central system, until they die.

Idea 02:

Privatize the entire VA into a hospital management group, and let veterans administrate it directly.

Special Note:

The CATO institute did a study on this idea.

I suggest you Google around and find it.

There are many ways to make the federal government smaller, faster and cheaper.

Other agencies folded into DOD.

American Battle Monuments Commission

The following components of the Dept. of Energy:

Bureau 01: Office of the under secretary for nuclear security

Bureau 02: ARPA-E

Bureau 03: Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security

(This should be folded into NSA)

Re-Organization of the rest of DOD:

As I review the DOD organization chart, it is quite task specific.

The GAO needs to start with Defense Finance and Accounting Service. The 2017 – 2018 audit didn't yield results, as to the waste inside DOD. So, GAO will need to start there with a forensic accounting audit.

DOD can do everything it does right now, for $100 Billion less per budget year.

That is exactly what Robert Gates said, and I believe him.

This requires bringing in a Secretary, deputy & assistant deputies that are ready to directly fight the Contractor-Wallstreet-DOD purchaser triad.

This is no joke, this is a real as it gets. For 7 decades this triad has carefully grown their relatiobnships, power and nuanced control over budget dollars.

The DOD purchasing staff are very powerful people, with deep connections across the world and they understand every aspect of how to keep contracts bloated and keep you and Congress in the dark. Thats how they've kept there power.

A DOD secretary needs to fire a 1000 people or more, inside the pentagon.

Every single contract needs to be reviewed, forensically examined by accounting experts who understand DOD contracting.

So my job in Congress would be to build enough of a relationship with top DOD officials so they have enough clout to start this process.

Step #1 would be my above mentioned freezing of the government budget for three years.

This will cause purchasing offices in DOD(& all other departments), to either find better contract bids, or they will scream their heads off.

The offices where pruchasers are screaming their heads off, that is where you start your audit.

Yeah, i know other Candidates will just say on a flier, 'cut military spending.'

You need a plan and steps as to how you do this.

I've offered you a thumbnail impression as to what i would do.

The same needs to be done within HHS, to get a handle on all their waste.

Consolidation 03:

Dept. of Treasury, Commerce & Labor:

Note 01:

Treasury dept. proper remains as is.

Note 02:

The following agencies and bureaus from Commerce and Labor to be folded in, and the rest eliminated, as they fall outside Constitutional enumerated powers granted to the federal government.

Census bureau

Bureau of Economic Analysis

International Trade Administration

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

Occupational Safety & Health Administration(OSHA)

Mine Safety & Health Administration

Employee Benefits Security Administration

Note 03:

Your know, being a nerd, I have a soft spot in my heart for NIST and NOAA.

I think these two agencies are better served if they become private sector entities. Let science and the market-place decide their value.

Note 04:

You will notice my proposal strips away 80% of Commerce and Labor dept. bureaus, boards, offices, etc.

The majority of those two departments should be done at the state or county levels. States and counties are vastly different as far as labor and economic resources, they need to decide what is best for their area.

This is the central problem, that the federal government, through an 'administrative state' has taken over way to much of states/counties responsibilities.

I think about the number of jobs and economic opportunity that has been crushed, so that the federal government can maintain control.

It breaks my heart.

Consolidation 05:

What follows is more of a recommendation for re-organization.

The State dept. has taken on roles that far exceed diplomacy and implementation of foreign policy.

I have stripped away everything, and my structure is an attempt to return the department to it's Constitutional roots.

Secretary of State

Deputy Secretary of State

Assistant Secretary of State for Ambassadors and consulates.

Note: This secretary will directly over-see all Ambassadors and Consulates, to nations we want to have normalized foreign relations with)

Assistant Secretary of State for North America

Assistant Secretary of State for Central America

Assistant Secretary of State for South America

Assistant Secretary of State for Europe

Assistant Secretary of State for Middle-East

Assistant Secretary of State for Africa

Assistant Secretary of State for Antarctica/Greenland/Iceland/New Zeeland/Australia

Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-at-Large

Assistant Secretary of State for China

Assistant Secretary of State for Russia

Assistant Secretary of State for India

Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence

Consolidation 06:

Eliminate the following Independent agencies, boards, etc.

Note: This entire list of recommended independent agency eliminations, is based solely on whether they fall under enumerated powers granted to the federal government, by the Constitution.

The list is in alphabetical order, as that was the list of independent agencies I worked from.

So don't get bent out of shape over FGI 01.

FGI 01:

African Development Foundation

FGI 02:

Agency for Global Media

FGI03:

U.S. Agency for International Development

FGI 04:

Alhurra TV/Radio Sawa

FGI 05:

Amtrak: National Railroad Passenger Corporation

FGI 06:

FGI 07:

FGI 08:

FGI 09:

FGI 10:

Note A: I do believe we need some basic social safety networks, and the federal government can play a proper le in that.

I also believe a real social safety net starts with: Family members, neighbors, friends, community organizations, churches, local government, county government and state government.

Then, and only then, should the federal government be approached.

part 04:

3-Year rotating review process

Item 01:

Every year: the GAO will do a 6-month review of 1/3 of the departments and independent agencies. Then make recommendations to the President and the Congress, for further consolidation, elimination of departments, bureaus and agencies.

Item 02:

Congress shall have 90 days to review, debate and vote.

Item 03:

The executive branch will have 24 months to carry out any consolidations and/or eliminations passed by Congress.

Item 04:

The GAO will be re-organized to set up the following investigative/review 'Audit-Strike Teams.'

4a. A team to audit government contracts from beginning to end. Specifically looking for the proper "market value" of any good, service or program purchased/awarded.

4aa. Audit the history and record of each purchasing officer and agency/department head, that awards contracts. We need to see who has a record or pattern, of awarding/signing off on contracts and purchases that are above market value.

4b. An 'ISO' level of audit into government employee efficiency. If there are 25 commerce dept. employees doing the work of 17 people, then 8 least productive need to go.

4c. The 5-year team. All government contractors providing the same products, programs or services for over 5 years, will have a full review.

4d. Accounting team. To audit each agency or department's accounting system, and ensure best practices. This would be an 'ISO' style team as well.

Item 05:

When I think about how we need to restructure the federal government.

I think it may be time to remove the Government Accountability Office as the auditing arm for Congress, and make it an independent agency.

This will give their general auditing and accounting work a much higher profile.

I'm willing to bet that most voters have never heard of the GAO, and if they had a higher profile, then Congress may listen too their recommendations more.

Its just one of many ideas I have on how we can structurally improve the federal government.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

Leadership for America