Tweet
President Obama has asked Congress to provide him with the authority to consolidate multiple federal agencies, the next step on a plan announced earlier in the year to reconstitute the Commerce Department and several other agencies as a trade and economic competitiveness department.
In a letter to John Boehner, Jeffrey Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote:
Today, I am submitting to the Congress the enclosed legislative proposal, the “Reforming and Consolidating Government Act of 2012″. This legislation would reinstate an authority granted to past Presidents to streamline and reform the Executive Branch. The Reforming and Consolidating Government Act of 2012 would modify this longstanding authority by requiring that any reorganization reduce the number of agencies or cut costs. This authority is essential to creating a 21st century Government that is fiscally responsible, works ever more efficiently and effectively for the American people, and helps make America more competitive.
This would have a two-year sunset, so the authority would require re-authorization. We can see it as a vehicle for undertaking the consolidation of the Commerce Department.
The legislation is attached to the letter, and it’s only a few pages long. It would grant authority for cost-saving consolidation of government agencies, under similar authority granted to the executive branch back in 1984. The Congress would have an up-or-down vote on reorganization plans after they are released by the White House. You could not have more than three reorganization plans pending in Congress at any one time.
The President, after the authority is granted, plans to submit his commerce and trade reorganization proposal. In a statement, Obama wrote, “We cannot allow redundant bureaucracy and unnecessary red tape to stand in the way of creating good jobs here at home, providing critical services for America’s families, and exporting America’s goods and services around the world.” In general, the new agency would include the US trade representative’s office, the Small Business Authority, the Export-Import bank, and a collection of other small business and trade agencies, combined with the Commerce Department to create a Trade and Competitiveness Department (a potential name; right now there is no name for this new agency). This consolidation would save $3 billion over ten years, according to the Administration.
Aside from the fact that a somewhat fragile economic recovery is a terrible time to consolidate agencies and cut jobs, there’s definitely some logic to making the Commerce Department a bit more functional. Right now the biggest agency inside Commerce is NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association; that would be put into the Department of the Interior under this deal. No word on where the Census Bureau, also part of Commerce, would go.
46 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
The idea of Obama DOING something is more terrifying than having him sit on his hands and do nothing. I don’t trust that this is not a power grab. Cynical, I know.
“Streamline and reform”….sound like a good plan. Accordingly, I am verrrry skeptical.
I’m a weather “junkie”. Don’t mess with my NOAA.
OTOH, the republicans GIVING Obama authority to do anything other than mow the lawn at the WH. Not likely.
Bye, bye Health & Human Services.
Let’s update that logo.
I’ve been typing for a couple of months that O’s second term will be much worse than his first. Your imagination is not rich enough to figure out in advance how bad it will be.
What EXACTLY does the Interior Department do??? Aren’t they just the “Bureau of Indian Affairs”?? Get rid of THAT and leave the Indians alone.
I’m 1/16th Cherokee.
Getting rid of the Interior Dept means selling off federal land to, oh let’s say, oil shale developers, frackers.
And let’s not forget selling mountain tops to 0.01%ers for their mansions.
Just got an e-mail from Earthjustice regarding the mining industry wanting to put 26 uranium mines adjacent to the Grand Canyon. If there is one spot in this country that we should fight over it’s the Grand Canyon. Most beautiful place in our country and should never be touched.
Oh heck, how stupid could I be. O isn’t going to, well, ya know, actually SELL the land, he’s going to give it away.
That is temporarily off the docket, at least according to what I remember reading. Gotta wait for the second term to do that.
Remember folks, O was put in office to loot citizens & country.
Great politics.Looks good on the front end (good buiness), probably wreaks chaos on the back and and costs way too much to implement, with dubious results. Penny-wise, pound-foolish. Propaganda.It took him 3+ years to think this one up? Jimmy Carter moved faster.
Oh and just wait & see how cooperative congress gets with O during the second term. They’ll rubber stamp every ‘austerity’ measure O puts up, then it will be Ds turn to resurrect a bunch of crazies to pretend to run for preznit to make sure the next one has a R label.
You are not seeing the hidden, much larger, agenda.
America; Obama’s Katrina
Obama has never showed that he understands the economy, business or how to manage a company his economic advisors have never shown any such skill either.
Cut to much cut the wrong things and you can hurt the economy streamlining government approval of nuclear plants ignoring safety regulations and environmental concerns could cause a repeat of Japan’s nuclear disaster.
Yes. Entirely predictable. And agree with everything else you said, but we’ve had this discussion a number of times already.
And so: on it goes….
ObamaCo is just doing what the 1% tells them to do. They really do not need to “understand” anything because that would get in the way of what the 1% wants.
If you simplify it to the basic level, it’s much easier to understand & grasp. You will not like it, but you can “get it.”
Personally I want more government regulation I am sick of hearing every few months about another nationwide food recall.
I want safe food. I am willing to pay for safe food. Less food poisoning cases means lower healthcare costs and more productive workers taking less time off or spending all day in the company bathroom.
If we cut this will it cost the economy as a whole more or less? If we cut this can we still do the job effectively are the questions I fear O will not even think to ask.
They really do not need to “understand” anything because that would get in the way of what the 1% wants.
Reasons change desire remains the same the rich want smaller government because that means less taxes. They especially don’t want their tax money to help people. However much like the 300 pound lady at McDonalds who has a supersized double 1/4 pounder value meal with a diet coke the 1%ers plan won’t work.
The 1% while cutting government spending on SS, Medicare etc do still want wars and military spending to continue at current levels.
No budget that doesn’t cut military spending is going to reduce the National Debt.
Most of these comments say a lot about our faith in Obama. I imagine it’s like being in prison when you know when it is time to bend over and take it. I believe CAHN is right, Barry’s second term will be a doozy. He is gonna make Bush look good, it’s coming whether you like it or not.
Couldn’t we use the oil???
Government spending creates jobs for example things like government meat inspectors help keep the millions of us who eat meat out of the hospital. One can argue that hiring more meat inspectors would not only create more jobs but reduce the number of food poisoning cases and the number of days workers call in sick and thereby boost the economy.
Cutting the number of meat inspectors however will hurt the economy.
The last thing the wing nuts want is someone who actually thinks. Just a robo-signer.
Let’s sell them their mountaintops…..maybe they’ll fall off.
Bush started an unnecessary war, killed his own people for personal and political gain. Obama aint a patch to that sonofabitch.
Agreed much like Bush the more attention Obama pays to any issue the more he will fuck it up.
And, we’re not even mentioning that dick Cheney.
Fixed it for you.
In other words, give Wall Street authority to reorganize the government.
OK, Genius: How much bigger and not-so-very hidden an aggenda can there be, other than the beaurocratic and systematic tear-down of democracy? Unless you are a conspiracy theorist, this is just another politico-government scam. Just another attempt to convince the general public that the government actually has something positive in mind for the country. Which it doesn’t. You should stop talking like your entire audience is stupid.
Obama has the power of life or death over every fucking human on the planet. That’s all the authority he needs to turn his Fascist government into a leaner meaner oppression machine.
Why on earth would all of NOAA go into DOI?
Put at least the NWS portion into DOT.
Obama and his economic advisers, Clinton retreads, are disciples of Milton Friedman’s Chicago School of Economics and are fully aware of the disaster capitalism that they have unleashed in the USA and globally.
Not at that cost.
Do tell. Please educate us on the horrors of Term one. I’m really dying to hear what you expect him to do in term two though.
Could it be worse than the massive middle class tax-cuts, or getting millions of people insured, creating or saving 3 million jobs, nearly 2 years of job growth? Overseeing a doubling of the NSDAQ and DOW, record corporate profits.. something even worse? It can’t be worse than that report today of the lowest unemployment claims in 4 years, can it? I know! I know! We as Americans will suffer more record-breaking profits from GM like we also saw announced today. Ghaaaaa!!
Perhaps this has all been a diabolical plan to get re-elected so he can really start to not do anything to restrict gun rights in his second term. Hmm.. the mind reels. You have to tell us!
If you’re not astute enough to see the reality of the corporate controlled police state that Obama and his administration have enhanced beyond what Bush/Cheney created, anything that eCAHN shared with you would be an exercise in futility.
In general, I would agree about your meat inspector. There is a certain reasonableness about paying people to dig holes and fill them back in when unemployment is high because those wages will circulate in the economy. Much like unemployment the overall economic benefit of $1 of salary should be more than $1 in practice when someone is living paycheck to paycheck (spending all their income and circulating it through the economy).
However you ignore the reality that this type of employment is the worst kind of bandaid. Aside from getting the ‘digger’ or your meat inspector through to the next week and getting a bit more overall economic stimulus.. you don’t end up with anything as a result except a ‘filled in hole’.
In your example, you assume there needs to be more meat inspectors (which very well may be true) but we’re not talking about breaking the effectiveness of a department. We’re talking about consolidation to eliminate redundant positions. Do you need an office in building A that does essentially what an office in Building b does.. particularly when you need a receptionist in each building? Why not put them both in Building A and ditch the 2nd receptionist.
Of course, any shrinking of the government staff is, in fact, an increase in unemployment. The republican’s “jobs plan” has apparently been to fire or lay-off 600,000 public workers up to now so they should be happy with this (though they’ll reflexively oppose anything Obama proposes).
However, you assume there are no plans for stimulus. The Republican’s defense against further stimulus spending is the ability to offset that spending. In the end, we’re much better off if we can lay off the receptionist [the ditch digger.. sorry all you receptionists] and use that money to pay for a stimulus program construction worker.. because the construction worker will leave a public asset when he’s done [think stimulus transportation projects if that helps].
I have plenty complaints about the current Administration. I seem to have argued nearly every day in the past week that he’s essentially Reagan light.
However, I don’t see much difference between the Obama administration and what happened in the past. It was the Bush administration that demanded “free-speech zones” and who denied people access to public events if they were suspected of not being pro-Bush.
I hate to conflate State issues with Federal [Administration] issues but that seems to be where you’re going. State/Municipal governments aren’t acting much different now than during previous Administrations. We had massive roundups, bigger in fact from what I recall, while Bush was in power than what we seen now. How many people were illegally detained in a parking garage in NY during a 2003 anti-Bush protest? How many millions were paid in restitution?
Huh.. took me 10 seconds to find out. 1800 arrested at the Republican National Convention. 90% not even charged. It’s an all-time record for the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Convention_protest_activity
Yes, it’s detestable how municipal cops are abusing Occupy protestors. Is this a NEW police state orchestrated by Obama? Hmnnn.
Just because you either a) irrationally hate him, or more likely b) feel personally hurt because he didn’t live up to all your expectations.. I’d like to hear you justify your statement.
Oooo Oooo almost forgot. That was pretty tame how the FBI under Bush infiltrated and spied on peace groups including a Quaker church [because they dared be anti-war]. That’s nothing compared to what Obama… oh, never mind.
seems like a pretty decent fit.. you can’t find a perfect place drop it into otherwise it’s functions would already exist in that department. The question is, where is the best fit.. where are there roughly analogous operations and resources? Where would they benefit from increased access to other departments?
here are the groups inside the DoI.
** poached from wikipedia **
Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement, Security, and Emergency Management (DAS-LESEM)
Office of Law Enforcement, Security, and Emergency Management (OLESEM)
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement <<=== seems like a reasonable match
Bureau of Reclamation
Federal Executive Boards
Interior Museum
National Park Service
Office of Insular Affairs
Office of Surface Mining
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Geological Survey <<=== seems like a potentially useful match
I could see benefits from working with other groups too.. though not as much.
My only other suggestion (being on the outside of course) would be NASA.. though NASA hasn't been getting great funding for a while now.
How many members of the GOP have advocated cutting departments?
How many times has the GOP said “Let’s do this” until the time when the President or Democrat led legislature have said “Let’s do this!” That has been the moment when the grand old party puts on the brakes and stops all forward motion.
If I wasn’t aware of that factoid from recent history, I’d be worried.
You have made a dreadful mistake. Ecahn does not “share”. What comes forth is pontification. That that attitude presumes the death of dialogue and superior “knowing”. It’s a crappy way to die.
CAHHHHHHHHNNNNNNN!
;)
a)I have no personal feelings regarding Obama, and b)I paid attention to his actions and his choice of mentor upon entering the US Senate, rather than his rhetoric. I’m anti-partisan and don’t vote for either arm of the Banker Party, Republican or Democrat. You obviously disregard the fact that Obama has continued the policies of the Bush/Cheney Administration and in many cases expanded the powers of the Executive Branch. Even Bush didn’t order the execution of American citizens by drone attack without trial, push for the power to disappear US citizens without justification, or pronounce Bradley Manning guilty without trial, while actively prosecuting whistleblowers rather than the criminals that they exposed.
Don’t forget the active push for more FTA’s that continue to gut our manufacturing base, the oil drilling campaign that was temporarily halted by the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster, the support for autocratic regimes in the ME and SE Asia, the attack on Libya without Congressional approval, the economic sanction war on Iran for no justifiable reason, the support for the coup in Honduras, etc., etc., etc.
Whatever rationalization you utilize to justify your ridiculous partisanship to vote for the “lesser of two evils” will still leave the country with a selection that is evil.
Beg to differ. eCAHN’s opinions appear to be the result of experience and astute educated analysis of factual data. As to your last sentence, I wasn’t aware that eCAHN was near death and don’t think you know that one way or the other. Refute with facts. eCAHN has a long track record at FDL for accurate analysis.